THE  STRUGGLE 


FOR 


RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 


THE  STRUGGLE 


FOR 


RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 


IN  THE  FIFTEENTH  AND 
SIXTEENTH   CENTURIES 


BEING  A  SERIES   OF  SIX  LECTURES   DELIVERED   ON  SUNDAY  EVENINGS 

IN   THE  SOUTH   CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH,    BROOKLYN 

IN  THE  WINTER  OF   1903 


BY 


JOHN   CHURCHWOOD    WILSON 

JUNIOR   PASTOR   OF  THE   CHURCH 


NEW  YORK 
1905 


6 


COPYRIGHT,  1905,  BY 
MRS.  JOHN  CHURCHWOOD  WILSON 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


But  he 

To  whom  a  thousand  memories  call, 
Not  being  less  but  more  than  all 
The  gentleness  he  seem'd  to  be, 

Best  seem'd  the  thing  he  was,  and  join'd 
Each  office  of  the  social  hour 
To  noble  manners,  as  the  flower 

And  native  growth  of  noble  mind. 

Tennyson 


M199293 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 

It  has  been  a  work  at  once  of  honor  and  of  love 
— for  these  two  tones  blend  in  every  remembrance 
of  my  Associate — to  bring  together  in  this  volume 
such  notes  as  were  accessible,  recalling  a  series 
of  Six  Lectures  entitled,  "  The  Struggle  for  Re- 
ligious Liberty,"  which  were  delivered  by  the 
Reverend  John  Churchwood  Wilson,  during  the 
winter  before  his  death,  in  the  South  Congrega- 
tional Church,  Brooklyn,  of  which  he  was  then 
the  Junior  Pastor. 

Perhaps  a  single  word  of  explanation  as  to  the 
form  of  these  addresses  should  in  justice  preface 
them.  They  are  not  carefully  finished  essays,  and 
were  in  no  degree  intended  or  prepared  for  publi- 
cation by  their  author.  They  are  rather  groups 
of  memoranda,  standing  for  familiar  discourses 
delivered  to  an  assembly  of  friends  and  parishion- 
ers. Mr.  Wilson  was  accustomed  to  accumulate, 
but  not  to  collate,  a  large  mass  of  material  in  his 
preliminary  study  of  a  theme.  Then,  after  speak- 
ing, he  would  write  out  rapidly  the  main  body  of 
his  address,  just  as  it  left  its  warm  record  in  his 
mind,  but  with  no  pause  for  added  literary  finish, 
and  sometimes  allowing  gaps  to  remain  in  the 
writing,  which  could  only  be  filled  afterward  by 


X  PREFATORY    NOTE. 

citations  from  the  earlier  and  more  scattered 
notes. 

It  is  after  some  such  informal  fashion  that  the 
following  discourses  have  been  arranged  for  this 
publication.  They  have  not  indeed  been  "  edited  " 
in  any  sense.  No  change  has  been  permitted  from 
the  manuscript.  The  paragraphs  stand  as  their 
gifted  author  spoke  them ;  but  they  have  received 
no  revising  touch  from  his  hand. 

Certain  repetitions  of  phrase,  certain  colloqui- 
alisms of  style,  suited  well  enough  for  familiar 
talk  with  one's  own  people,  would,  without  doubt, 
have  disappeared  from  any  page  which  a  care- 
ful student  and  literary  craftsman  like  Mr.  Wil- 
son would  have  intended  for  permanency.  But 
I  have  thought  it  truest  to  him  to  let  the  ad- 
dresses, with  this  foreword  of  explanation,  remain 
as  he  left  them.  Even  in  this  half  extempora- 
neous form  they  reproduce  to  us,  who  knew  and 
loved  him,  something  of  the  true  picture  of  his 
mind — genuine  student,  convincing  preacher,  de- 
voted pastor,  chivalrous  friend. 

I  venture  to  add  the  following  brief  record  of 
his  life : 

John  Churchwood  Wilson  was  born  in  Phila- 
delphia, May  9,  1862.  His  father  was  Thomas 
Wilson,  a  native  of  Scotland,  and  his  mother  was 
Ruth  Anna  Coy,  whose  Quaker  ancestry  had  long 
been  resident  in  Philadelphia. 

John's  studies  were  pursued  at  the  Philadelphia 
academies  of  "  Eastburn  "  and  "  Rugby."  Enter* 


PREFATORY    NOTE.  XI 

ing  Amherst  College  in  Massachusetts,  he  was 
graduated  in  the  class  of  1885.  He  studied 
Theology  at  Yale  Divinity  School,  graduating  in 
1888.  Before  his  graduation  he  had  been  called 
to  the  First  Congregational  Church,  Stonington, 
Conn.,  where  he  was  ordained  and  installed  pastor 
May  23d  of  that  year.  He  remained  at  Stoning- 
ton until  called  to  the  pastorate  of  the  Centre 
Congregational  Church,  Meriden,  Conn.,  in  No- 
vember of  1892.  During  this  pastorate  the 
church  edifice  was  remodeled.  Thence,  early  in 
1896,  he  removed  to  Brooklyn,  New  York,  to 
become  pastor  of  the  Puritan  Congregational 
Church,  where  also  he  accomplished  a  memor- 
able work  of  reconstruction  and  upbuilding. 

In  1900,  under  repeated  and  stubborn  attacks 
of  "  grip,"  his  health  partially  gave  way,  and  al- 
though his  people  generously  granted  him  a  year's 
leave  of  absence  abroad,  he  was  compelled  to  re- 
sign, and  was  dismissed  in  June  of  1901.  His 
health,  however,  improved,  and  feeling  himself 
able  to  undertake  the  lessened  responsibilities  of 
an  Associate,  he  came  in  that  capacity  to  the 
South  Church,  and  there  remained  its  Associate 
and  Junior  Pastor  until  his  death,  July  9,  1903. 

This  brief  foreword  cannot  attempt  to  char- 
acterize him,  or  to  dwell  upon  the  volume  and 
value  of  his  accomplishment  in  his  vocation.  He 
was  universally  honored,  and  by  all  who  knew 
him  equally  admired  and  trusted.  He  was  a  true 
scholar  and  gentleman,  thoughtful,  sensitive,  lib- 


xii 


PREFATORY    NOTE. 


eral,  consecrated,  and  though  affable  in  manner, 
brave  to  dauntlessness. 

He  possessed  a  spirit  of  unusual  tone,  in  whose 
foreground  dwelt  a  rare  wealth  of  noble  ideals 
and  a  most  passionate  love  of  liberty.  His  mental 
and  moral  traits  were  in  singular  unison  of  action, 
so  that  the  painstaking  search  and  utterance  of 
the  scholar  were  in  him  reinforced  by  a  certain 
gallant  and  knightly  fervor,  imparting  to  all  his 
personality  and  work  a  distinction  and  a  beauty 
whose  impression  cannot  fade  from  our  memory. 

ALBERT  J.  LYMAN. 

BROOKLYN,  June  9,  1905. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

PRELUDE        i 

LECTURE  I.  GENERAL  CONDITION  OF  EU- 
ROPE ON  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFOR- 
MATION   *  .  25 

LECTURE  II.  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RE- 
LIGIOUS LIBERTY  IN  ENGLAND  —  WYC- 
LIF  TO  CROMWELL  ....  39 

LECTURE  III.  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RE- 
LIGIOUS LIBERTY  IN  GERMANY  — 
LUTHER,  THE  HERO  OF  THE  REFOR- 
MATION   84 

LECTURE  IV.  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELI- 
GIOUS LIBERTY  IN  ITALY — SAVONAROLA  1 18 

LECTURE  V.  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RE- 
LIGIOUS LIBERTY  IN  HOLLAND  —  THE 
TRAGEDY  OF  THE  REFORMATION  — 
WILLIAM  THE  SILENT  ....  154 

LECTURE  VI.  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RE- 
LIGIOUS LIBERTY  —  GENERAL  CONCLU- 
SION —  THE  PRACTICAL  GAINS  FROM 
THE  REFORMATION  TO  THE  WORLD  IDS 


PRELUDE. 

THE  RELIGIOUS  VALUE  OF  THE  STUDY  OF  HISTORY. 

In  any  careful  study  of  human  affairs  we 
discover  that  the  history  of  religion  is  in- 
separable from  the  history  of  human  life;  that 
it  is,  indeed,  a  part  of  the  general  life  of  man- 
kind; that  it  is  indissolubly  bound  up  with 
learning,  with  politics,  with  commerce,  with 
finance;  and  is  so  involved  in  every  phase  of 
human  life  that  it  cannot  be  eliminated  from 
any  part. 

In  the  fourteenth  century  what  passed  for 
religion  was  the  dominant  power  in  the  West- 
ern world.  The  Church  everywhere  occupied 
a  commanding  and  indisputable  position. 
Kings  and  princes  paid  tribute  to  her  and  ac- 
knowledged her  lordship  over  them.  They 
were  all  the  subjects  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 
To  give  to  her  sovereignty  an  authority  which 
she  did  not  care  to  claim  openly  for  herself 
as  a  church,  she  had  voluntarily  associated 
with  her  in  her  rule  a  military  form  of  govern- 
ment, and  professed  to  share  with  it  the  dig- 
nities and  forms  of  a  universal  empire.  This 


2  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

associate  was  known  as  the  Holy  Roman  Em- 
pire, which  was  nothing  more  than  a  fiction, 
so  far  as  authority  and  power  went,  and 
which  long  served  the  purpose  of  saving  the 
Holy  See  from  open  scandal  and  revolt, 
which  would  have  certainly  arisen  had  she  as- 
sumed to  exercise  the  military  power  and  to 
wield  political  sway;  and  thus,  under  cover  of 
religious  authority,  the  Church  came  to  exer- 
cise for  five  hundred  years  the  chief  power. 
The  Empire  fought  the  battles  of  the  Papacy 
and  kept  the  peoples  in  check. 

But  apart  from  this  universal  and  oftentimes 
enforced  dominance  of  the  Papacy,  there  was 
also,  by  common  consent,  a  very  general  su- 
premacy of  the  priesthood  throughout  all 
lands.  The  priests  were  the  learned  men 
wherever  there  was  any  learning.  They  were 
the  wise  men  wherever  there  was  any  wis- 
dom. They  were  the  able  men  for  all  kinds 
of  affairs.  Hence,  they  rose  easily  and  natu- 
rally to  every  kind  of  eminence  among  their 
contemporaries.  The  universities  were  in 
their  hands.  They  established  and  presided 
over  the  schools.  They  were  the  writers  and 
the  statesmen  of  their  time,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  invention  of  the  art  of  printing  that 
their  dominance  in  Europe  was  or  could  have 
been  broken.  Indeed,  long  after  that  they 


RELIGIOUS   VALUE   OF   STUDY   OF    HISTORY.        3 

held  control  of  the  universities  of  the  world, 
had  almost  exclusive  possession  of  its  learn- 
ing, and  were  the  tutors  and  guardians  of  its 
princes.  As  late  as  the  seventeenth  century 
France  was  ruled  by  a  priest — the  ablest  and 
most  magnificent  ruler  she  ever  had  in  fact, 
either  before  or  after.  It  was  Richelieu,  the 
Cardinal,  that  actually  gave  France  her  su- 
premacy in  the  councils  of  Europe  in  his  own 
day,  and  prepared  the  way  and  made  possible 
her  achievements  and  glory  under  Louis 
XIV.,  the  "  Grand  Monarch."  So  also  in 
England,  only  a  century  before,  a  priest, 
Cardinal  Woolsey,  had  been  the  first  to  see 
the  need  of  a  new  policy  for  England,  and  had 
created  such  a  policy,  both  domestic  and 
foreign,  which  has  continued  to  this  day,  and 
served  the  purpose  of  laying,  deep  and 
strong,  the  foundation  for  the  Tudor  suc- 
cesses, and  by  his  statesmanlike  conduct  in 
matters  of  education  gave  a  mighty  impulse 
to  the  future  greatness  of  England,  which 
has  not  yet  spent  itself. 

The  study  of  history  is,  of  course,  the  study 
of  the  story  of  man,  that  is  to  say,  of  the 
whole  course  of  his  progress  and  develop- 
ment, his  civilization,  Christianization.  It  in- 
volves a  study  of  his  languages,  customs,  laws, 
his  literature,  his  art,  and  his  sciences,  his 


4  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

philosophies  and  his  religions.  Man's  his- 
tory is  the  history  of  his  intellectual,  moral 
and  spiritual  development ;  not  simply  the 
history  of  his  wars,  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  dy- 
nasties, of  the  intrigues  of  courts  and  the  tri- 
umphs of  armies.  Those  events  used  to  con- 
stitute the  greater  part  of  what  was  called 
history.  It  was  supposed  that  history  was 
played  out  upon  the  narrow  stage  of  the 
king's  palace  and  the  battlefield;  and  books 
that  professed  to  deal  with  history  were 
largely  confined  to  describing  the  life  of  the 
court.  They  told  us  what  were  the  personal 
habits  of  the  monarch ;  who  were  the  officers 
of  state  who  surrounded  him ;  how  they  minis- 
tered unto  his  convenience  and  amusement. 
His  receptions,  levees,  banquets  and  prog- 
resses through  his  kingdom  were  all  elabor- 
ately described ;  so  that  until  recently  the  an- 
nals of  history  were  a  kind  of  court  calendar, 
all  taken  up  with  kings  and  queens,  princes 
and  princesses,  with  dukes  and  duchesses, 
with  lords  and  knights  and  ladies,  glitter  and 
glare  and  fashion,  silks  and  velvets,  satins 
and  furs,  gold  and  diamonds,  ivory  and  pearls. 
It  was  one  long-drawn  panorama  of  stately 
personages  and  puppets,  who  wore  crowns 
and  sat  on  thrones  and  carried  gold,  silver  or 
ivory  sticks,  who  rode  on  splendidly  capari- 


RELIGIOUS   VALUE   OF   STUDY   OF   HISTORY.        5 

soned  steeds  in  coats  of  mail,  with  great 
swords  in  their  hands,  or  were  drawn  about 
in  chariots  of  ivory  and  gold  by  half  a  score  of 
milk-white  horses.  Occasionally  the  tedium 
and  monotony  of  this  Arabian  Nights  show 
was  broken  by  the  sound  of  the  trumpet,  the 
clang  of  arms  and  the  tramp  of  multitudes  of 
men ;  and  that  in  time  was  followed  by  a  great 
slaughter  of  the  menials  and  servants  of  the 
high  and  mighty  rulers  and  who  otherwise 
were  not  considered  worthy  of  so  much  as 
mention  in  comparison  with  the  grand  and 
gorgeous  courts;  but  who,  in  time  of  battle, 
were  brought  out  and  marshaled  on  the  plains 
to  fight  its  battles  and  sustain  its  dignities 
and  powers. 

When  I  speak  of  history,  I  do  not  refer  to 
the  stage  pageantry  of  courts,  nor  to  the 
ghastly  horrors  of  the  battlefields,  which  made 
up  the  life  of  kings;  but  rather  to  the  quiet, 
steady,  sober,  somewhat  unobtrusive  life  of 
humanity,  which  flowed  on  outside  the  palace 
precincts,  often  in  spite  of  the  palace  influ- 
ences, and  not  infrequently  tended  to  the  de- 
feat and  overthrow  of  the  forces  within  the 
palace  itself,  which  sought  to  check  and  sup- 
press it.  The  history  of  the  world  is  the  his- 
tory of  man  in  all  the  stages  of  his  progress 
and  in  all  the  tendencies  and  purposes  of  his 


0  STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

life.  It  is  a  stream  that  began  low  down  and 
rose  higher  with  passing  years.  It  is  the 
stream  of  the  life  of  the  whole  people,  not  of 
any  particular  few,  be  they  never  so  great  or 
powerful  or  grand.  As  it  goes  on,  it  creates 
institutions  for  itself,  and  then  submerges 
them  as  they  decline  to  conform  to  its  pur- 
poses, and  demolishes  them  as  they  prove 
inadequate  to  its  demands.  The  pageantry 
of  courts  is  only  one  of  these  institutions. 
Seen  in  the  light  of  this  age,  such  parades  are 
puppet  shows;  and  the  books  that  chronicle 
them  are  to  us  no  better  than  works  of  fiction 
or  the  plays  of  a  dramatist,  so  far  as  instruc- 
tion or  inspiration  is  concerned.  They  read 
well  and  are  extremely  interesting,  but  they 
do  not  convey  to  us  any  adequate  impression 
of  the  times  or  inform  us  about  the  things  we 
need  to  know. 

If  you  would  know  the  history  of  any  peo- 
ple you  must  go  down  among  the  people  and 
study  them  in  their  homes,  their  workshops, 
their  offices  and  stores  and  schools.  The  gov- 
ernment and  the  legislature  are  only  two  de- 
partments of  a  people's  life.  They  represent 
the  people's  relation  to  other  peoples  and  their 
internal  state  of  order  and  freedom.  But  the 
real  life  of  the  people  is  underneath  all  that 
and  upholds  it.  Their  industries,  their  arts, 


RELIGIOUS    VALUE    OF    STUDY    OF    HISTORY.         7 

their  activities,  their  hopes  and  fears,  their 
struggles,  their  successes  and  failures,  their 
character,  are  the  underlying  basis  upon 
which  ultimately  all  other  things  must  rest; 
the  moulding  and  determining  forces  of  gov- 
ernment and  legislature  alike,  so  that  when 
we  come  to  study  history  in  any  true  sense, 
we  are  studying  human  nature — human  na- 
ture at  home  and  abroad — human  nature  in 
all  its  activities,  in  all  its  phases.  We  are 
studying  character  in  the  best  possible  way- 
character  in  its  living  relations,  not  only  as 
it  now  is,  but  as  it  has  been,  and  as  it  has  been 
from  the  beginning  and  always,  in  actual  con- 
ditions, in  circumstances  that  have  actually 
existed. 

The  value  of  this  sort  of  study  is  its 
help  to  understand  humanity.  There  is  no 
such  help  to  the  knowledge  of  men  as  a  study 
of  those  men  who,  in  every  variety  and  phase 
of  human  life,  and  with  every  possible  motive 
to  action,  have  lived  out  their  lives  on  a  great 
scale  and  left  us  the  whole,  with  its  results, 
to  observe.  The  reading  of  fiction  is  sup- 
posed to  serve  this  purpose,  and  when  it  is 
good,  healthful  reading,  it  is  beneficial  in  its 
revelations  of  character.  A  writer  like  Dick- 
ens, who  takes  single  traits  of  character  and 
studies  them  in  the  large  and  presents  them 


8 


STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


isolated  and  alone,  personifying  separate 
traits  in  single  individuals  and  setting  them 
over  against  each  other,  unmodified  and  un- 
relieved by  modifying  traits,  has  done  a  great 
service  to  mankind  by  making  good  traits 
attractive  and  evil  ones  repulsive.  Still,  even 
of  novels,  it  is  true  that  many  of  the  best  of 
them  are  historical  novels,  as  are  some  of 
Scott  and  Victor  Hugo.  The  dramatist  also 
finds  his  greatest  field  in  history.  It  is  the 
great  stage  on  which  great  minds  find  room 
adequately  to  stretch  themselves ;  and  there  is 
no  field  of  romance  ever  created  in  the  brain 
of  the  dreamer  of  fiction  that  can  compare  for 
a  moment  with  the  field  of  history  for  great 
themes,  great  characters,  great  occasions, 
startling  situations  and  marvelous  occur- 
rences. 

The  religious  value  of  such  a  study  is  seen 
at  once  when  you  consider  how  large  a  place 
religion  has  played  in  the  life  of  the  world. 
Recall  how  large  a  portion  of  the  Bible  is 
historical.  At  least  twenty-one  books  of  the 
Bible,  making  in  all  a  good  third  of  its  con- 
tents, are  historical  books.  The  first  ten 
books  of  the  Old  Testament  are  among  the 
earliest  history  we  have,  and  they  are  still  the 
most  reliable,  valuable  and  satisfactory  rec- 
ords of  those  early  times.  The  discoveries  of 


RELIGIOUS   VALUE   OF   STUDY   OF    HISTORY. 


ancient  ruins  in  which  are  records  on  stones 
have  served  only  to  corroborate  these  ancient 
documents. 

The  first  five  books  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment also  are  historical  books.  Any  extended 
study  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  or  New 
Testaments  must  of  necessity  involve  a  study 
of  history;  and  the  reason  for  this  is  not 
hard  to  find,  for  history  is  in  the  last  analysis 
God's  way  with  man.  It  is  a  record  and 
a  revelation  of  His  laws  for  man.  It  is  a 
living  illustration  and  demonstration  of  the 
moral  order.  God's  moral  laws  are  seen  in 
history  just  as  His  physical  laws  are  seen 
in  nature.  The  laws  of  nature  are  the  laws 
of  God  for  organic  and  inorganic  substances. 
The  moral  laws  are  the  laws  of  God  for  moral 
beings.  History  shows  the  application  and 
the  working  out  of  these  laws  among  men. 
In  those  civilizations  that  have  perished,  the 
empires  that  have  dissolved  and  peoples  that 
have  disappeared  from  off  the  face  of  the 
earth,  we  trace  in  their  rise  and  fall  the  causes 
of  their  success  and  of  their  failure.  The  su- 
premacy of  Greece,  and  afterwards  of  Rome, 
for  several  centuries  is  seen  to  be  due  to  the 
qualities  which  in  early  and  simple  times  min- 
istered to  the  growth  of  both  peoples  in 
physical  endurance,  in  mental  force  and  vigor, 


10 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


and  in  moral  purity  and  power.  So,  also, 
with  increasing  prosperity,  came  the  same 
causes  of  disintegration  and  final  dissolution. 
Wealth  gave  leisure  and  leisure  was  turned  to 
idleness  and  idleness  begat  self-indulgence 
and  self-indulgence  provoked  vice  and  crime ; 
and  so  corruption  set  in  and  undermined 
the  whole  fabric  of  the  national  life.  Once 
moral  vigor  and  integrity  lost,  the  way  was 
open  for  the  inroads  of  every  form  of  decay. 
Mental  weakness  soon  followed  and  physical 
degeneracy  was  not  far  behind,  so  that  the 
whole  magnificent  structures  of  Alexander's 
and  of  Caesar's  empires  collapsed  from  pre- 
cisely the  same  causes — the  loss  of  a  real 
manhood  and  a  true  character  on  the  part  of 
the  people.  The  laws  of  God  concerning  man 
as  a  moral  being  are  thus  shown  to  us  on  a 
large  scale  through  the  rise  and  fall  of  em- 
pires. 

Let  us  look  now  at  the  value  of  this  kind  of 
study  in  some  of  its  details.  Let  me  name,  in 
the  first  place,  the  religious  value  of  the  study 
of  history  in  this,  namely : 

I.  It  takes  one  out  of  his  present  surround- 
ings and  sets  him  down  in  the  midst  of  af- 
fairs that  have  no  immediate  personal  relation 
to  him,  but  which  awaken  his  interest  and  ap- 
peal to  his  judgment.  In  that  way  he  learns 


RELIGIOUS   VALUE  OF   STUDY   OF   HISTORY.      II 

to  take  an  intellectual  rather  than  an  emo- 
tional interest  in  human  affairs  and  to  judge 
candidly  and  impartially  of  persons,  events, 
motives  and  purposes.  As  we  see  things  in 
the  present  they  have  personal  relations  to 
ourselves;  they  enlist  our  sympathies  and 
arouse  our  feelings,  so  that  the  judgment  is 
more  or  less  obscured  and  prejudice  is  likely 
to  be  aroused.  This  is  manifest  in  all  politi- 
cal and  religious  discussions.  Here  we  are 
partisans,  and  the  party  slogan  stirs  the  blood 
to  fever  heat,  so  that  the  intellect  and  judg- 
ment are  in  abeyance  for  the  time  and  preju- 
dice and  passion  rule  supreme;  or  the  appeal 
is  made  to  the  party  shibboleth  and  self-inter- 
est is  aroused,  and  the  judgment  is  warped 
and  conscience  silenced,  so  that  our  personal 
relations  to  affairs  in  the  present  often  act  to 
raise  us  to  the  fever  heat  of  passion  or  to  chill 
us  to  the  freezing  point  of  fear.  But  in  study- 
ing these  same  problems  in  history  we  are 
taken  out  of  ourselves,  as  it  were,  and  so  the 
personal  element  is  removed  and  the  bound- 
aries of  self-interest,  of  prejudice  and  of  pas- 
sion are  transcended.  We  are  thus  able  to 
see  clearly,  to  judge  calmly,  and  to  form 
righteous  judgments ;  and  that  is  a  clear  gain 
to  one's  moral  and  religious  nature,  for  it 
helps  to  cultivate  in  him  a  sense  of  justice,  of 


12 


righteousness,  and  of  truth.  It  gives  him  a 
sort  of  standard  with  which  to  compare  things 
in  the  present  and  helps  to  educate  in  him  the 
habit  and  use  of  impartial  and  dispassionate 
judgment.  It  gives  him  precedents,  as  it  were, 
to  go  by.  He  knows  when  others  have  made 
mistakes;  he  sees  where  were  the  slippery 
places  in  the  lives  of  others ;  and  is  thus  better 
able  to  detect  and  avoid  them  when  they 
arise  in  his  own  course.  He  has  learned  to 
condemn  evil  in  others,  and  he  can  scarcely 
condone  it  now  in  himself.  He  has  learned  to 
admire  courage  and  heroism  in  others,  and 
he  will  scarcely  endure  cowardice  and  sordid- 
ness.  He  has  seen  how  in  the  long  run  evil 
courses  had  miserable,  even  tragic,  ends,  and 
how  at  last  righteousness  brings  its  blessed 
rewards.  And  so  he  learns  to  be  patient  and 
steadfast  and  enduring  in  the  midst  of  storm 
and  tempest,  in  which  all  things  rock. 

II.  Again,  the  study  of  history  helps  us  to 
estimate  the  relative  value  of  present  things 
and  so  to  distinguish  the  permanent  from  the 
transient  elements  of  life  that  we  are  not  likely 
to  confuse  them. 

There  are  always  these  two  elements  pres- 
ent in  every  course  of  life;  but  it  is  not  al- 
ways easy  to  distinguish  between  them.  It  is 
this  fact  that  creates  confusion  so  often  and 


RELIGIOUS   VALUE   OF   STUDY   OF    HISTORY.      13 

makes  it  so  difficult  to  decide  in  every  ques- 
tion of  alternatives  which  course  to  pursue, 
which  party  to  espouse,  which  cause  to  advo- 
cate in  any  particular  case.  As  between  a 
good  and  an  evil,  we  naturally  desire  to 
choose  the  good;  but  how  are  we  always  to 
know  what  is  good?  Of  two  evils,  choose  the 
least ;  but  who  is  to  decide  which  is  the  least  ? 
And  good  men,  sincere  men,  are  found  on 
both  sides  of  every  question.  Men  of  char- 
acter and  men  of  ability  are  pitted  against 
each  other;  and  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  their 
sincerity  and  loyalty  to  their  convictions. 
And  how  are  you  to  account  for  it?  It  is  man- 
ifest that  they  cannot  both  be  right ;  one  must 
be  right  and  the  other  must  be  wrong.  There 
can  be  no  moral  distinction  drawn  between 
the  men.  They  are  equally  sincere  and  earn- 
est. But  there  is  a  moral  distinction  in  their 
positions,  and  what  is  the  explanation  of  it? 
The  difference  is  an  intellectual  one.  One 
man  has  learned  how  rightly  to  estimate  the 
value  of  the  question  at  issue,  to  distinguish 
between  its  permanent  and  transient  features, 
and  so  he  takes  his  stand  on  the  ground  of 
the  principle  that  is  at  stake  and  proceeds 
according  to  the  expediency  of  the  case.  The 
other  man  does  not  distinguish  between  what 
is  expedient  and  what  is  necessary,  and  so  he 


JGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

gets  tangled  up  in  a  web  of  sophisms  which 
he  mistakes  for  principles.  He  mistakes,  for 
instance,  the  principle  for  the  method.  Be- 
cause there  is  but  one  principle,  he  argues 
that  there  is  but  one  way  to  secure  that  prin- 
ciple; so  he  confounds  the  method  with  the 
principle,  the  expedient  with  the  necessary, 
and  lays  his  emphasis  on  the  wrong  point. 
The  difficulty,  I  repeat,  is  an  intellectual  one. 
He  is  not  thinking  clearly  or  straight.  His  in- 
tellectual processes  have  become  entangled 
and  involved  in  a  maze  of  difficulties.  Thus 
it  is  that  so  many  events  that  seem  of  supreme 
importance  to  some  persons  seem  of  so  little 
importance  to  others. 

Some  people  think  a  principle  is  at  stake 
when  nothing  but  a  question  of  expediency  or 
of  method  is  at  issue.  Many  persons,  for  in- 
stance, declare  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  to  be  endangered  when  nothing  but 
a  question  of  governmental  policy  is  under 
discussion ;  and  so  they  take  alarm  at  nothing 
and  are  affrighted  at  spectres.  Again,  we  hear 
it  declared  that  the  truth  is  imperilled  be- 
cause certain  novel  and  hitherto  unheard-of 
views  of  the  truth  are  being  advanced.  Men 
do  not  distinguish  in  such  cases  between  the 
permanent  and  the  transient.  Truth  is  per- 
manent; it  cannot  be  imperilled.  Opinions 
and  views  of  things,  whether  they  be  old  or 


RELIGIOUS   VALUE  OF   STUDY   OF   HISTORY.      15 

new,  are  transient.  And  it  is  the  truth  that 
threatens  them,  not  they  that  threaten  the 
truth.  Shallow  and  weak-minded  persons  who 
do  not  know  the  course  of  religious  thought 
are  taken  captive  by  false  religious  teachings, 
and  men  who  are  easily  led  about  and  swayed 
by  every  wind  of  doctrine  fall  an  easy  prey 
to  fanciful  and  mystical  views  of  things,  from 
which  a  little  knowledge  of  history  could  have 
saved  them.  Ancient  and  long-exploded  false- 
hoods are  always  being  unearthed  and  their 
skeletons  dragged  from  their  tombs  or  their 
shades  evoked  and  conjured  with,  even  as 
dead  and  Oriental  philosophies  now  reappear 
as  Theosophy,  Christian  Science  and  Faith  ; 
Healing.  Any  one  who  knows  the  history  of/ 
thought  knows  that  these  are  but  the  wraith  \ 
of  long-buried  philosophies,  articulated  and 
galvanized  anew  and  sent  forth  under  a  new 
name  to  deceive  the  ignorant  and  unwary.  A 
student  of  history  should  not  be  deceived  by 
them.  It  is  a  mere  question  of  time  before 
the  truth  overcomes  the  falsehood  and  drives 
it  in  shame  out  of  the  world. 

"  Truth  forever  on  the  scaffold ; 
Wrong  forever  on  the  throne. 
Yet  the  scaffold  rules  the  future, 
And  behind  the  dim  unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow, 
Keeping  watch  above  His  own." 


1 6  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

That  is  the  lesson  that  history  teaches  with 
reference  to  all  right  and  all  true  things.  The 
very  stars  in  their  courses  fight  against  evil 
and  falsehood,  and  there  is  no  question  what- 
ever about  the  final  victory.  Or,  take  the 
Bible,  as  an  instance.  Consternation  is  con- 
stantly being  caused  among  faithful  and  con- 
servative Christians  because  of  a  new  view 
or  method  of  treating  the  Bible,  and  the  cry 
goes  up  from  conscientious  and  loyal  souls 
that  the  authority  of  the  Bible  is  menaced 
and  its  influence  is  being  destroyed.  And  so 
they  hastened  to  take  up  cudgels  in  defense  of 
the  Bible.  And  with  what  result?  namely: 
That  they  have  disclosed  at  once  the  weakness 
of  their  position,  which  is  not  so  much  a  zeal 
for  the  Bible  as  it  is  for  some  traditional  or 
particular  view  of  the  Bible.  A  little  knowl- 
edge of  history  would  have  disclosed  to  them 
that  the  Bible  is  not  in  any  danger.  Why !  the 
Bible  has  stood  every  kind  of  test  that  can 
possibly  be  applied  to  it.  It  has  been  under 
fire  ever  since  it  has  been  a  book.  It  was 
burned  in  the  third  century  as  a  book  of  black 
arts,  and  for  almost  a  thousand  years  the  men 
whose  business  it  was  to  teach  it  and  preach  it 
forbade  its  use  to  the  people  and  made  it  a 
capital  crime  for  any  but  a  priest  to  be  found 
with  one  in  his  possession.  Men,  women  and 


RELIGIOUS   VALUE   OF   STUDY   OF   HISTORY.      17 

children  have  been  slain  and  burned  and 
drowned  by  the  thousand  all  over  Europe  for 
having  Bibles  in  their  possession  or  even  hear- 
ing them  read.  And  yet  what  was  the  first 
book  printed  on  a  printing  press  after  the  art 
of  printing  was  invented  but  a  Bible — the 
most  hated  and  most  forbidden  book  of 
those  days.  And  whereas  other  books 
which  men  valued  and  treasured  above  all 
others  and  endeavored  to  preserve  have 
been  irretrievably  lost,  this  book  has  been 
preserved  to  us  through  all  kinds  of  op- 
position, and  danger,  too!  If  you  had  read 
history  you  would  know  that  you  cannot 
imperil  the  Bible,  and  neither  can  you  de- 
stroy it.  It  has  a  self-preserving,  self-prop- 
agating power,  a  kind  of  elastic  and  buoyant 
quality  that  insures  it  against  all  persecution 
and  conflict.  Whatever  is  opposed  to  it  and 
whatever  it  condemns  is  bound  sooner  or 
later  to  come  to  naught. 

Now  you  may  try  to  explain  this  on  any 
ground  you  please.  It  is  the  clear  teaching 
of  history  that  the  Bible  not  only  cannot 
be  destroyed,  but  it  cannot  be  imperilled, 
for  the  more  it  is  condemned,  criticised, 
ridiculed  and  forbidden,  the  faster  it  spreads 
and  the  more  deeply  it  takes  hold  on  the 
hearts  of  men.  It  teaches  us  to  estimate 


i8 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


events  at  their  true  value — many  events 
which  seem  of  the  utmost  importance  while 
they  are  taking  place,  but  are  soon  forgotten 
and  occupy  so  small  a  place  in  the  after  ac- 
counts of  the  times.  Why,  the  conflicts  and 
controversies  and  contentions  which  often 
so  deeply  agitated  the  minds  of  men,  excite 
now  only  a  passing  interest  in  the  student, 
if  indeed  they  ever  come  to  his  notice  at  all. 
They  were  but  petty,  transient  and  insignifi- 
cant matters  whose  results  were  not  worth 
recording,  and  which  failed  to  leave  any  per- 
manent impression  on  the  general  course  of 
events.  It  is  thus  also  that  men  who  figure 
large  in  their  own  times  are  often  forgotten 
as  soon  as  the  earth  closes  over  them,  while 
many  a  comparatively  unknown  man  in  his 
day  comes  to  have  an  importance  to  after  ages 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  position  which  he 
held  in  his  own.  He  was  a  man  of  permanent 
significance,  while  the  other  was  a  transient 
meteor  on  the  firmament  of  his  age. 

III.  The  study  of  history  furnishes  us  with 
tlie  only  possible  Held  for  the  study  of  human 
nature  on  a  large  scale  and  in  all  its  possible 
phases.  It  sets  before  us  not  only  the  actions 
of  men,  but  their  motives  for  such  actions,  and 
the  consequences  that  flowed  from  them,  and 
thus,  by  demonstration,  enables  us  to  see  what 


tELIGIOUS   VALUE   OF   STUDY   OF   HISTORY.      19 

:ourses  of  life  are  good  and  what  are  evil ;  what 
are  desirable  and  what  are  undesirable;  what 
are  safe  and  beneficent,  what  unsafe  and  de- 
structive ;  what  is  the  way  up  in  life  and  what  is 
the  way  down  in  life.  Human  nature  remains 
the  same  in  all  ages,  in  all  its  essential  quali- 
ties, motives,  passions,  and  powers.  The 
customs,  languages,  laws  and  conditions  of 
men  change.  Civilizations  advance,  knowl- 
edge grows,  wealth  and  luxury  increase,  the 
advantages  and  blessings  of  life  multiply. 
Under  these  advancements  human  nature  im- 
proves and  rises,  becomes  more  refined  and 
cultivated,  more  intelligent  and  enlightened, 
more  noble,  more  divine.  But  through  all 
these  changes  the  essential  human  qualities — 
the  qualities  which  have  brought  civilization 
out  of  savagery,  knowledge  out  of  ignorance, 
refinement  out  of  gross  animalism,  and  moral 
and  spiritual  conditions  of  life  out  of  grovel- 
ing sensualism;  and  those  qualities  which, 
working  in  the  opposite  directions,  have 
wrought  destructive  decay  and  death,  have 
destroyed  men,  have  ruined  peoples,  have  dis- 
integrated empires — these  same  qualities  are 
still  seen  to  be  at  work  in  and  among  the  men 
of  this  age,  and  by  knowing  what  they  have 
done  we  can  predict  what  they  will  do.  Cer- 
tain laws  of  action  are  discovered  in  the  af- 


20  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

fairs  of  life  which  may  be  formulated  and 
trusted  with  the  same  accuracy  and  certainty 
as  the  laws  that  govern  the  stars  in  their 
courses  or  govern  the  tides  in  their  ebb  and 
flow. 

There  is  a  modern  objection  to  the  study  of 
history  based  upon  the  intensely  practical  na- 
ture of  modern  life,  and  the  superiority  of  our 
conditions  to  those  of  any  other  age.  "  Why 
should  we,"  asks  the  objector,  "  bother  our- 
selves about  the  quarrels,  the  contentions,  the 
follies  and  the  foibles,  the  struggles  and  the 
battles,  of  our  ancestors.  Their  hatreds,  prej- 
udices and  ideals  are  not  ours;  we  have  long 
since  outgrown  them.  Their  quarrels  are  not 
our  quarrels,  neither  are  their  struggles  our 
struggles.  Life  is  a  processional,  not  a  reces- 
sional. We  should  look  forward,  not  back- 
ward, even  as  we  think  forward  and  work  for- 
ward and  not  backward.  Our  look  should 
always  be  ahead  with  our  face  towards  the  fu- 
ture. The  world  is  in  the  period  of  its  youth ; 
and  it  is  not  characteristic  of  a  vigorous  and 
growing  youth  to  fall  into  reminiscence  and 
grow  pensive.  The  reminiscent  stage  of  life 
comes  last  and  is  characteristic  of  old  age. 
Let  us,  then,  give  our  attention  to  the  pres- 
ent and  the  future,  which  peremptorily  de- 
mand our  attention.  Science,  art,  business 


RELIGIOUS   VALUE   OF   STUDY   OF   HISTORY.      21 

and  politics — these  are  the  sufficient  and  all- 
engrossing  employments  of  the  men  of  our 
age.  Let  us,  then,  relegate  history  to  the 
lumber  room  of  the  past,  where  it  belongs. 
Let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead,  while  we 
"  rise  on  stepping  stones  of  our  dead  selves  to 
higher  things." 

"  Not  backward  are  our  glances  bent, 
But  onward  to  our  Father's  house." 

All  that  sounds  well  and  seems  to  be  in 
keeping  with  the  modern  spirit  of  evolution 
and  progress ;  but  a  little  closer  look  will  con- 
vince us,  I  think,  that  there  is  a  grave  error 
underlying  any  such  position,  which  renders 
it  utterly  untenable,  and  it  is  this,  namely,  that 
evolution  and  progress  are  possible  only  on 
the  condition  that  there  has  been  a  past,  and 
that  the  best  of  that  past  is  possessed  and  pre- 
served by  us.  Of  course,  such  possession  and 
preservation  are  possible  only  on  the  basis  of 
knowledge.  Every  science  proceeds  upon  the 
basis  of  its  own  history,  and  has  for  its  study 
a  careful  and  minute  investigation  of  the 
course  it  has  taken,  no  less  than  a  close  observ- 
ance of  the  field  in  which  it  is  now  working. 
Leave  out  the  past  of  astronomy,  chemistry, 
biology  or  any  other  modern  science  and  you 
leave  out  a  large  part  of  its  most  important 


22  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

knowledge  and  results.  It  is  only  as  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  past  of  any  art  is  preserved  to  us 
that  its  present  prosecution  is  possible;  and 
he  who  would  use  an  art  to  its  best  effects 
must  possess  a  comprehensive  and  detailed 
knowledge  of  its  past. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  manner  and  method 
of  all  life.  History,  like  Scripture,  is  writ- 
ten for  our  learning,  that  we,  through  the  pa- 
tience and  achievements  of  the  past,  may  have 
diligence  in  the  present  and  hope  of  the  fu- 
ture. It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  a  past,  to 
be  the  heir  of  a  noble  race;  to  know  that  there 
runs  in  your  veins  the  blood  of  heroes,  of  mar- 
tyrs, of  patriots,  and  of  saints;  to  feel  the 
throb  of  noble  hearts  through  a  long  line  of 
unselfish  and  benevolent  ancestry.  If  one 
have  any  manhood  or  nobility  in  him,  it  will 
surely  be  quickened  into  newness  of  life  and 
thrilled  by  an  irresistible  impulse  to  high  re- 
solves and  noble  deeds,  when  he  knows  that 
he  is  the  offspring  of  those  who  laid  down 
their  lives  for  God  and  truth  and  the  freedom 
of  their  conscience.  That  is  the  inheritance 
which  is  "  undefiled  and  that  fadeth  not 
away." 

And  we  of  this  age  and  land,  who  hold  the 
Christian  faith  in  simplicity  with  a  pure  heart 
and  an  untrammelled  conscience,  are  the  off- 


RELIGIOUS   VALUE   OF   STUDY   OF   HISTORY.      23 

spring  of  those  who,  in  times  past,  passed 
through  fire  and  flood,  through  imprison- 
ments and  persecutions;  lost  houses  and  lands, 
forsook  their  homes  and  friends,  the  loved 
scenes  of  their  childhood,  the  beloved  fellow- 
ships of  mature  life,  and  either  laid  down 
their  lives  for  conscience'  sake,  or  became  vol- 
untary exiles  in  strange  lands  or  faced  the 
dangers  of  primeval  forests,  inhabited  by  wild 
beasts  and  savage  men.  The  struggle  for  re- 
ligious liberty  comprises  the  most  heroic,  the 
most  brilliant,  the  most  inspiring  chapters  of 
human  history,  from  the  days  of  the  earliest 
martyr,  Socrates.  And  those  who  bear  the 
name  of  Protestant  in  this  age  are  the  legiti- 
mate heirs  of  these  men.  Their  noble  lives, 
their  heroic  deeds,  their  immortal  achieve- 
ments, are  ours.  They  are  our  spiritual  an- 
cestors. Their  faith,  their  courage,  their 
dauntless  perseverance,  are  our  ensample  in 
all  high-hearted  and  noble  living.  How  can 
the  descendants  of  such  men  be  pusillanimous, 
craven  or  sordid?  How  can  they  grovel  and 
wallow  in  the  mire  that  seems  to  be  the  na- 
tive element  of  those  only  whose  ancestors 
stoned  the  prophets  and  burned  the  martyrs? 
How  can  we  who  know  at  what  price  our 
liberties  were  bought  for  us  ever  betray  such 
a  trust  as  that  ?  Let  him  who  can  answer,  for 
I  cannot. 


STRUGGLE 

In  the  brief  course  of  lectures  that  are  to 
follow  on  Sunday  evenings  I  purpose  to  treat 
of  those  pages  of  such  memorials  as  are  cov- 
ered by  the  title,  "  The  Struggle  for  Re- 
ligious Liberty  "  in  England,  Germany,  Italy 
and  the  Netherlands,  confining  our  attention 
mainly  to  the  period  of  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries.  It  will  embrace  the  times 
of  the  Reformation  as  they  are  illustrated  for 
us  by  the  names  of  Wyclif,  Savonarola,  Lu- 
ther and  William  of  Orange.  These  men  are 
for  us  in  this  connection  that 

"  Choir  invisible 

Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 
In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence;  live 
In  pulses  stirred  to  generosity, 
In  deeds  of  daring  rectitude,  in  scorn 
For  miserable  aims  that  end  with  self, 
In  thoughts  sublime  that  pierce  the  night  like  stars 
And  with  their  mild  persistence  urge  man's  search 
to  vaster  issues." 


LECTURE  I. 

GENERAL   CONDITION    OF    EUROPE   ON    THE   EVE   OF 
THE   REFORMATION. 

Let  me  suggest  at  the  outset  that  the 
struggle  for  religious  liberty  and  what  is 
known  as  the  Reformation  are  not  in  all  re- 
spects identical  movements.  The  Reforma- 
tion was  a  great  tidal  wave  which  swept  over 
Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century,  out  of  the 
vast  and  troubled  sea  of  the  centuries  whose 
waters  had  always  been  greatly  agitated  by 
the  struggle  for  religious  liberty.  It  was  the 
culmination  of  that  struggle.  It  asserted  the 
fundamental  principles  upon  which  that 
struggle  had  proceeded,  and  succeeded  in  lay- 
ing broad  and  secure  foundations  upon  which 
true  religious  liberty  could  be  built;  but  it 
left  some  of  the  higher  standards  and  finer 
ideals  unattained.  In  that  respect  there  is 
much  yet  to  be  desired. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Reformation 
split  Europe  into  two  great  warring  religious 
camps,  it  is  necessary  to  remind  ourselves 
that  up  to  that  time  there  had  been  but  one 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

Christian  Church  in  Western  Europe.  And 
the  struggle  for  religious  liberty  had  gone  on 
within  that  church  and  not  outside  of  it,  nor 
against  it,  after  the  first  three  centuries. 
Whatever  glory  and  whatever  shame  at- 
tached to  that  church  during  the  first  fifteen 
centuries  is  shared  equally  by  us  all,  Protes- 
tants and  Roman  Catholics  alike.  The  Ref- 
ormation itself  originated  within  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  and  was  led  by  men  bred  in 
her  schools  and  cloisters.  We  should  also 
remember  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  is  not 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  the  twentieth 
century  and  in  the  United  States. 

From  a  very  early  age  religious  differences 
have  engendered  strife  and  stirred  the  most 
violent  passions  of  men.  Although  the  Jews 
tasted  the  bitterness  of  persecution,  that  did 
not  prevent  them  from  pressing  the  same  cup 
to  the  lips  of  the  early  Christians,  and,  with 
the  aid  of  the  Romans,  making  them  drink  it 
to  its  dregs. 

Then  were  written  the  first  pages  in  the 
most  sanguinary  and  thrilling  story — a  story 
of  unutterable  suffering  and  grim  endurance 
for  conscience'  sake — which  history's  pages 
record.  It  can  scarcely  be  called  a  struggle. 
It  was  as  impossible  for  the  obscure  and  de- 


EUROPE   ON    EVE   OF   THE   REFORMATION.        27 

fenceless  sufferers  to  resist  their  enemies  as 
for  a  fly  to  resist  the  hand  that  crushes  it. 
Judged  from  appearances,  it  was  a  remorse- 
less massacre,  which  crushed  its  victims  into 
the  earth.  But  the  real  forces  that  were 
working  out  the  problem  were  not  on  the 
surface.  The  odds  against  which  the  early 
Christians  were  matched  drove  them  to  seek 
refuge  in  the  mountain  fastnesses  and  in  the 
subterranean  caverns  known  as  catacombs. 
Here  they  cherished  their  faith  and  worship 
until  the  violence  of  their  enemies  abated. 
After  two  centuries  they  came  forth  from 
their  hiding  places,  disciplined  by  hardship, 
trained  to  prudence  and  foresight  by  the  peril 
in  which  they  had  lived,  and  with  a  compact 
and  efficient  organization.  Their  leaders  had 
improved  their  long  seclusion  to  cultivate  let- 
ters and  arts  and  soon  took  leading  places 
among  scholars  and  men  of  affairs;  so  that 
when  Constantine  succeeded  to  the  undivided 
possession  of  supreme  power  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  prudence,  if  not  preference,  moved 
him  to  an  alliance  with  them. 

Then  began  a  new  phase  in  the  struggle 
for  religious  liberty.  The  despised  and  per- 
secuted Christians,  now  risen  to  places  of 
power  and  possessing  the  throne  in  the  per- 
son of  the  Emperor,  did  not  abuse  their  trust. 


28  STRUGGLE   FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

Such  was  the  spirit  of  sweet  reasonableness 
which  animated  them  that  the  first  Christian 
emperor  issued  an  edict  of  religious  tolera- 
tion, known  as  the  Edict  of  Milan,  which 
granted  religious  liberty  within  the  empire 
on  the  basis  of  the  sacred  rights  of  con- 
science; only  those  religious  rites  were  pro- 
hibited which  involved  immorality,  magic  or 
sorcery.  Not  until  the  fatal  passion  for 
power  had  been  aroused  in  them  by  its  pos- 
session did  the  Christians  resort  to  persecu- 
tion. The  organization  of  the  Christian 
Church  kept  pace  with  its  spread  in  Europe. 
From  Rome  as  a  center  the  missionaries 
penetrated  to  all  parts  of  Europe.  They  car- 
ried with  them  the  love  of  the  mother  church 
from  which  they  went  and  bound  the  churches 
which  they  planted  to  her  in  gratitude  and 
Christian  fellowship.  The  confidence  and  af- 
fection which  she  won  by  her  generosity  and 
self-sacrifice  in  the  Gospel,  she  soon  came  to 
demand  as  her  right,  and  when  at  length  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  secured  the  political  power 
of  his  city,  he  aspired  to  make  the  traditional 
capital  of  the  world  its  ecclesiastical  capital 
also;  then,  with  the  policy  of  military  Rome, 
the  Christian  Church  adopted  also  the  ambi- 
tions and  relentless  spirit  of  the  Caesars. 
Ecclesiastical  Rome  Usurped  the  rights  o{ 


EUROPE   ON    EVE   OF   THE   REFORMATION.        2 9 

mankind  and  perverted  their  liberties  as  ruth- 
lessly as  did  political  Rome. 

Through  successive  stages  the  Church 
mounted  to  the  throne  of  its  power  until  it 
was  more  absolute  than  the  empire  had  ever 
essayed  to  be.  Men  like  Gregory  the  Great, 
Leo  III  and  Hildebrand  made  the  most  as- 
tonishing claims  to  absolute  supremacy  in 
human  affairs,  and  treated  with  the  utmost 
severity  all  who  withstood  their  claims.  Un- 
availing protests  against  their  astounding  pre- 
tensions were  raised  by  men  like  John  Scotus, 
Abelard,  Arnold  of  Brescia  and  Wyclif;  and 
in  the  humbler  walks  of  life  opposition 
showed  itself  in  such  sects  as  the  Albigenses 
and  the  Waldenses,  neither  of  which  desired 
to  separate  itself  from  the  Catholic  Church. 
Both  of  them  desired  that  its  pretension 
should  be  moderated  and  its  abuses  re- 
formed according  to  the  Scriptural  require- 
ments of  apostolic  simplicity  and  purity. 
These  men  were  simple-minded  and  their 
lives  were  pure,  but  they  were  subjected  to 
the  most  remorseless  persecution.  Their 
heroic  endurance  and  unfaltering  faith  have 
covered  their  memory  with  a  halo  of  glory 
like  unto  that  which  surrounds  the  early 
Christian  martyrs.  During  the  massacre  of 
the  Albigenses  was  born  the  order  of  the 


30  STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

Dominicans,  into  whose  hands  was  intrusted 
the  institution  known  as  the  Inquisition,  the 
most  diabolical  engine  of  intolerance  and  per- 
secution that  human  ingenuity  ever  devised. 

It  is  the  fate  of  all  despotisms  to  work  their 
own  destruction  by  a  fatal  disregard  of  the 
limits  of  human  endurance,  and  when  the 
papacy  added  the  horrors  of  the  Inquisition 
to  the  usurpation  of  the  most  sacred  of  hu- 
man rights,  and  aggravated  her  offenses  by 
the  flagrant  immorality  of  the  clergy,  she 
transcended  her  limits  and  invoked  the  long 
slumbering  and  now  accumulated  wrath  of 
centuries,  which  burst  forth  in  the  Reforma- 
tion, disrupted  her  solid  empire  and  caused 
her  the  loss  of  two-thirds  of  her  spiritual 
children. 

Two  great  movements  in  the  Middle  Ages 
contributed  to  hasten  the  triumph  of  relig- 
ious liberty  in  Europe.  They  were  the  Cru- 
sades and  the  Renaissance.  The  religious 
enthusiasm  of  Europe,  dormant  for  centuries, 
was  kindled  by  the  fiery  eloquence  of  Peter 
the  Hermit  as  he  preached  a  crusade  against 
the  "  infidel  Turks  "  for  the  purpose  of  rescu- 
ing the  Holy  Sepulcher  from  their  hands.  It 
was  as  when  a  door  is  suddenly  opened  into 
a  house  where  a  fire  has  long  been  smolder- 
ing, smothered  in  its  own  smoke,  the  whole 


EUROPE   ON    EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION.        31 

building  is  wrapped  in  a  sudden  conflagra- 
tion; or,  as  when  a  volcano  long  extinct 
bursts  into  sudden  activity.  A  spontaneous 
uprising,  as  of  one  man,  unparalleled  in  his- 
tory, took  place  among  all  classes  of  people. 
Kings  and  peasants,  priests  and  lawyers, 
merchants  and  bankers,  were  swept  by  the 
same  mighty  impulse  and  fired  by  the  same 
zeal,  which  for  the  time  burned  alike  in  every 
breast  and  submerged  calculations  and  self- 
interest.  All  alike  were  moved  to  venture 
life  and  fortune  in  the  holy  cause. 

During  the  space  of  two  hundred  years, 
seven  upheavals  of  the  populations  took  place 
known  as  the  Crusades,  five  of  them  prodig- 
ious and  two  of  them  only  relatively  lesser, 
all  of  them  mighty.  Before  the  frenzy  kin- 
dled by  Peter  the  Hermit  died  out  immense 
treasure  was  squandered,  multitudes  of  lives 
were  sacrificed  and  apparently  nothing  ac- 
complished; total  and  disastrous  failure 
seemed  to  attend  it  all. 

But  here  again  we  are  mistaken  if  we  judge 
by  appearances.  For  although  the  Crusaders 
whitened  the  plains  of  Asia  Minor  with  their 
bones  and  dyed  the  grass  of  Northern  Africa 
with  their  blood  without  achieving  any  per- 
manent results  in  either  Asia  or  Africa,  their 
exodus  from  Europe  and  their  return  to 


3  2  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

their  former  homes  were  attended  by  conse- 
quences in  Europe  far  greater  than  would 
have  been  the  conquest  of  all  the  East  and 
the  rescue  of  the  relics  of  all  the  saints. 

In  the  first  place,  they  had  broken  the 
power  of  the  Saracens  by  successive  impacts 
upon  them,  by  prolonged  conflict  with  them. 
They  had  fought  fire  with  fire.  Religious 
fanaticism  was  matched  against  religious 
fanaticism,  and  it  inflicted  such  punishment 
upon  the  rapacious  and  cruel  Mussulman  that 
he  has  never  been  able  to  rally  from  it.  Al- 
though he  reached  the  shores  of  Europe  later 
on,  he  was  exhausted  with  the  struggle  and 
has  continued  in  a  state  of  languishing  im- 
potency  ever  since. 

In  the  second  place,  the  Crusades  had  a 
marked  and  lasting  effect  upon  the  Crusad- 
ers themselves,  and  in  spite  of  their  suffer- 
ing and  losses  the  gain  was  greater  than 
the  loss,  for  it  brought  them  into  direct 
and  immediate  contact  with  the  East,  at  that 
time  the  cultivated  and  refined  portion  of 
the  world.  Constantinople  and  Antioch, 
the  two  great  storehouses  of  ancient  art 
and  learning,  and  the  centers  of  the  wealth 
and  culture  of  the  East,  had  become  familiar 
to  them.  Antioch  was  for  a  time  in  their 
hands.  The  splendid  buildings,  fine  fabrics, 


EUROPE   ON    EVE   OF   THE   REFORMATION.        33 

beautiful  statues,  costly  gems,  were  a  revela- 
tion to  the  Crusaders,  and  served  as  ob- 
ject lessons;  while  the  elegant  refinements., 
splendid  courtesy,  magnificent  manners  and 
ancient  learning  of  the  East  were  not  without 
their  effect  upon  the  coarse,  rude  and  un- 
tamed barbarians  of  the  West.  Those  who 
survived  the  conflict  returned  with  new  ideas 
of  the  character  of  the  world  in  which  they 
lived,  of  the  meaning  of  civilization,  of  the 
possibilities  of  humanity,  and  of  the  defects 
of  Europe.  They  had  been  to  school  and 
had  traveled.  Their  view  of  life  had  been 
broadened  and  their  minds  enriched  by  con- 
tact with  superior  conditions  of  life  and  a 
great  mental  and  moral  revolution  had  been 
wrought  in  them. 

But  the  Crusades  had  also  an  immediate 
and  lasting  effect  upon  Europe  itself.  For 
by  enlisting  in  the  Crusades  the  serf  bought 
his  freedom  from  the  soil.  The  debtor  was 
freed  from  his  creditor.  He  that  went  out  a 
slave  came  back  a  free  man,  with  gold  coin 
in  his  pocket  and  some  new  ideas  of  the  world 
in  his  head.  Serfdom  and  slavery  were  prac- 
tically abolished  in  Europe.  The  cities  also 
had  been  able,  by  immense  sums  of  money 
paid  to  the  hereditary  princes,  who  held 
lordship  over  them,  to  buy  their  freedom 


34 

and  secure  charters  for  themselves  which 
made  them  independent  of  the  control  of 
petty  rulers;  and  by  the  long  absence  of  the 
nobles  in  the  East,  the  middle  classes  had 
learned  to  administer  their  own  affairs,  and 
so  the  backbone  of  the  feudal  system  was 
broken  and  the  period  of  freedom  and  en- 
lightenment came  in.  Modern  industrialism 
was  inaugurated.  New  ideas  sprang  up  and 
a  redistribution  of  wealth  and  privileges  took 
place,  together  with  a  new  sense  of  their  own 
place  in  the  world  and  new  wants  and  ambi- 
tions in  the  common  people.  The  immediate 
results  to  Europe  of  the  Crusades  were  in- 
calculable. A  new  spirit  of  humanity  and  of 
enterprise,  of  hope  and  of  ambition,  had 
sprung  up,  and  the  death  warrant  was  signed 
of  the  ancient  regime  of  ignorance,  supersti- 
tion and  terror  which  had  reigned  for  a 
thousand  years. 

The  second  great  movement  that  hastened 
the  final  conflict  for  religious  liberty  was  the 
Renaissance,  or  revival  of  learning,  in  Europe, 
which  followed  upon  the  taking  of  Constan- 
tinople by  the  Turks  in  1453.  That  was  a 
momentous  event  for  Western  Europe.  It 
sent  hundreds  of  Greek  scholars  and  literati 
to  find  refuge  in  the  West.  The  learning  and 
the  manuscripts  which  they  brought  with 


EUROPE   ON    EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION.       35 

them  created  a  great  stir.  Schools,  academies 
and  universities  sprang  up  everywhere,  and 
the  Church  ceased  to  be  the  sole  custodian  of 
knowledge.  It  was  as  a  part  of  that  move- 
ment that  the  University  of  Wittenberg  was 
established  by  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  to 
which  one  Martin  Luther  came  in  1508  as 
preacher  and  professor  of  theology.  We 
shall  hear  more  about  that  later  on.  A  spirit 
of  inquiry  was  awakened,  investigations  were 
instituted  and  historical  and  scientific  studies 
were  taken  up  in  real  earnest.  The  cold  and 
lifeless  formalism  that  had  characterized  the 
logic  of  the  Schoolmen  disappeared.  The 
study  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics  be- 
came a  passion.  Princes  and  potentates  vied 
with  one  another  in  securing  eminent  scholars 
and  elegant  literati  to  adorn  their  courts ;  and 
the  rich  and  the  great  became  the  profuse 
patrons  of  learning  and  spared  no  pains  and 
no  expense  in  collecting  manuscripts  and 
creating  libraries  and  schools  of  learning. 
The  minds  of  men  already  liberated  from 
their  ancient  thraldom  by  the  Crusades  were 
quickened  and  enlightened  by  the  new  learn- 
ing, which  soon  spread  among  all  classes  of 
the  people. 

In  addition  to  these  great  movements,  and 
perhaps  as  a  consequence  of  them,  was  the 


36  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

spirit  of  adventure  which  now  broke  out 
simultaneously  in  Italy  and  Spain,  France  and 
England,  Germany  and  Holland.  Inspired 
by  Columbus,  a  native  of  Genoa,  Italy,  hun- 
dreds of  adventurers  braved  the  perils  of  the 
untraversed  seas  in  search  of  new  lands  or 
new  passages  to  the  East.  New  continents 
were  discovered  and  the  globe  was  circum- 
navigated. Invention  also  was  quickened, 
printing  by  movable  types  and  the  manufac- 
ture of  paper  from  rags  had  but  recently  been 
invented.  The  manner's  compass  came  into 
general  use  in  navigation.  The  telescope  was 
invented  and  the  heavens  explored  for  new 
worlds,  as  the  seas  for  new  lands.  The  whole 
period  was  one  of  unprecedented  mental  ac- 
tivity and  ferment.  Copernicus,  by  his  new 
system  of  astronomy,  and  Kepler,  by  his  laws, 
were  soon  revolutionizing  astronomy. 

All  of  these  things  had  their  effects  upon 
the  minds  of  men.  The  discovery  of  the  size 
and  shape  of  the  earth,  and  its  relation  to 
other  bodies  in  space  as  well  as  of  the  im- 
mense distances  in  the  heavens  and  the  vast 
systems  of  worlds  in  space;  the  changes  of 
men's  ideas  as  to  the  center  of  the  universe 
and  the  revelation  that  it  was  not  the  earth, 
but  that  the  earth  was  only  an  insignificant 
member  of  a  system  whose  center  was  the 


EUROPE   ON    EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION.       37 

sun — all  served  to  teach  men  the  uncer- 
tainty and  instability  of  things  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  regard  as  established 
beyond  the  peradventure  of  doubt,  and  led 
them  to  expect  and  prepared  them  to  receive 
changes  in  other  spheres  of  thought  and 
realms  of  life.  A  spirit  of  skepticism  became 
general  and  invaded  even  the  Church,  and 
everything  seemed  to  converge  upon  and  con- 
spire itoward  a  single  point,  until  nothing 
could  withstand  the  conjunction  of  forces 
which  worked  to  free  the  human  mind  from 
bondage  and  the  human  spirit  from  thral- 
dom. 

How  this  struggle  culminated  in  the  Refor- 
mation  and  worked  itself  free  at  last  we  shall 
see  in  succeeding  lectures.  Suffice  it  to  say, 
in  closing,  that  the  greatest  blessings  we  now 
possess,  the  sanctity  of  our  homes,  our  per- 
sonal security  and  freedom,  and  the  right 
to  make  the  most  of  ourselves,  have  been  se- 
cured to  us  as  the  result  of  that  world-long 
struggle  for  religious  liberty.  The  freedom 
of  the  press,  the  right  of  every  man  to  wor- 
ship God  in  his  own  way,  the  democratic 
principles  of  government,  the  right  of  a  man 
as  such,  regardless  of  his  place  or  position  in 
the  social  scale,  or  of  his  worldly  possessions, 
and  the  demand  for  absolute  justice  for  all 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


men,  equality  irrespective  of  race,  sex  or  con- 
dition of  life — these  and  many  of  the  great 
principles  now  taking  front  rank  among  the 
objects  devotedly  to  be  sought  in  the  twenti- 
eth century  have  been  made  possible  to  us  by 
the  Reformation. 

Beginning  with  the  struggle  for  religious 
liberty,  that  struggle  ran  on  to  compass  the 
liberty  of  the  whole  man,  and  was  destined 
not  to  stop  until  he  was  every  whit  free.  It 
has  already  secured  for  us  the  liberty  of  con- 
science, the  right  of  private  judgment,  polit- 
ical and  personal  freedom.  But  the  end  is  not 
yet,  and  what  it  shall  be  no  man  knoweth. 
But  as  great  and  good  men  as  ever  fought  in 
any  cause  fight  still  in  these  ranks,  which  are 
constantly  increasing  in  numbers,  in  resolute- 
ness, and  in  power. 


LECTURE    II. 

THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY    IN    ENG- 
LAND  WYCLIF    TO    CROMWELL. 

The  English  Reformation  divides  itself  nat- 
urally into  three  parts: 

(1)  From  the  days  of  Wyclif  to  those  of 
Henry  VIII.,  a  period  of  about  150  years,  or, 
in  round  numbers,  from  1360  to  1530.    That 
was  a  time  of  preparation. 

(2)  Then  came  a  period  of  120  years,  or 
from  1530  to  1650;  or  from  the  act  of  the 
Royal  Supremacy  in  England  to  the  death  of 
Charles  I.,  when  the  fight  of  the  Reformation 
was  actually  joined  and  its  various   parties 
were  locked  in  the  death  grapple  for  the  mas- 
tery; and 

(3)  The  period  from  1650  to  1688,  when 
William  of  Orange  landed  and  took  posses- 
sion of  the  crown,  the  final  settlement  upon 
an  unassailable  foundation  of  the  actual  work 
of  the  Reformation. 

The  results  were:  (i)  the  separation  of 
England  from  the  Papal  See  and  its  independ- 
ence of  all  foreign  power;  (2)  the  establish- 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


v 


ment  of  the  right  of  every  man  to  worship 
God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own 
conscience,  without  fear  of  molestation  from 
civil  or  ecclesiastical  authority ;  (3)  the  secur- 
ing of  freedom  for  the  individual  conscience 
from  all  priestly  intermeddling  of  any  sort 
whatsoever;  (4)  the  purging  of  the  national 
church  from  superstitious  practices,  idola- 
trous worship  and  pagan  doctrines;  (5)  the 
introduction  of  the  use  of  the  Scriptures  as 
the  basis  of  faith  and  practice  and  as  the  final 
court  of  appeal  in  all  matters  of  doctrine;  (6) 
the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  ver- 
nacular, and  their  distribution  among  the 
people,  to  be  read  without  note  or  comment 
or  any  form  of  priestly  prohibition. 

The  actual  events  of  the  English  Reforma- 
tion lie  within  a  period  of  about  three  hun- 
dred years,  between  the  dates  1360  and  1660, 
to  put  it  in  round  numbers.  To  England  be- 
longs the  credit  for  the  origin  of  the  Refor- 
mation movement,  and  there  its  best  results 
were  secured.  But  the  struggle  was  more 
prolonged  in  England  and  was  less  violent 
and  dramatic  than  on  the  Continent.  The 
heroic  figure  of  Luther  and  the  swift,  violent, 
decisive  character  of  the  movement  which  he 
led  have  given  to  that  phase  of  the  Reforma- 
tion a  prominence  and  a  fascination  possessed 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  41 

by  no  other,  so  that  we  usually  speak  of  the 
whole  movement  as  the  German  Reforma- 
tion; but  it  was  from  England  that  Luther 
received  his  first  impulse  to  his  work.  The 
writings  of  Wyclif  had  reached  him  by  way 
of  Bohemia  through  John  Huss,  the  Bohe- 
mian martyr ;  and  Luther  never  went  quite  so 
far  in  his  work  as  Wyclif  did  in  his. 

The  Struggle  for  Religious  Liberty  in  Eng- 
land is  the  subject  of  our  reflections  this  even- 
ing. 

Great  events  move  slowly  and  cast  their 
shadows  long  before  them.  Wise  and  far-see- 
ing minds  are  able  to  discern  their  coming 
from  afar  and  to  herald  their  approach. 
Great  and  noble  spirits  contribute  to  hasten 
their  coming  and  often  precipitate  the  events 
themselves.  In  England,  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  the  ecclesiastical  heavens  were  over- 
cast with  dark  and  ominous  portents.  The 
lightnings  were  playing  along  the  horizon, 
and  the  deep-toned  thunders  were  rolling 
which  threatened  a  storm,  distant  as  yet,  but 
approaching  and  increasing  in  anger  and 
violence  as  it  moved.  We  hear  its  first  deep 
muttering  in  the  early  English  literature. 
William  Langland,  in  his  vision,  "  Piers  the 
Ploughman, "inveighs  against  the  worldliness, 
the  hypocrisy  and  the  immoralities  of  the 


42  STRUGGLE  FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

monks,  declares  popes'  pardons  to  be  of  small 
value,  and  exhorts  men  to  lead  righteous  and 
pure  lives.  Chaucer,  in  his  "  Canterbury 
Tales,"  pilloried  the  mendicant  orders  in  the 
"  Pardoner,"  who  comes  from  Rome  laden 
with  relics  and  wallet, 

"  Brim  full  of  pardons  come  from  Rome  all  hot," 

and  who  confesses  that  he  preaches  against 
"  avarice  and  such  cursedness,"  not  in  order 
that  he  may  correct  sin,  but  in  order  that  men 
may  give  their  pence  unto  him,  for  his  object 
is  to  win.  He  heaps  his  scorn  on  the  higher 
clergy,  and  in  contrast  draws  a  picture  of  a 
simple,  faithful  parish  priest,  rich  in  holy 
thought  and  work. 

Eminent  scholars  and  investigators  de- 
parted from  the  ancient  and  traditional  logic 
of  the  Schoolmen  and  started  out  in  ways 
of  their  own  to  pursue  knowledge  and  acquire 
learning.  But  William  of  Occam  went 
farther.  He  not  only  declared  theories  of 
knowledge  at  variance  with  the  traditions  of 
the  Schoolmen  which  had  been  adopted  by 
the  Church,  but  he  attacked  the  claim  of 
papal  infallibility  and  the  absurd  pretensions 
of  the  pope  to  absolute  power  and  universal 
rule. 


ENGLAND WYCLIF    TO    CROMWELL. 


43 


By  far  the  greatest  actor,  however,  in  this 
drama,  and  the  man  destined  to  take  the 
leading  part,  was  John  Wyclif,  Professor  of 
Theology  at  Oxford  and  rector  of  Sutter- 
worth.  He  was  the  greatest  scholar  of  his 
time  and  the  man  of  greatest  weight  in  his 
day.  It  happened  in  the  Reformation,  as  so 
often  happens  in  the  great  movements  in  hu- 
man affairs,  that  the  men  of  studious  habits 
and  thoughtful  lives  were  called  upon  to  give 
impulse  and  direction  to  the  men  of  action 
who  fought  the  battles  of  progress  and 
marched  at  the  head  of  the  advancing  col- 
umns. 

Wyclif,  Huss,  Savonarola,  Luther,  Calvin, 
Erasmus  and  Melancthon  were  all  men  of  let- 
ters who  preferred  the  scholarly  seclusion  of 
their  studies  to  the  active  warfare  of  reform. 
The  same  is  true  of  Cranmer  and  of  John 
Milton.  But  the  conditions  of  the  times  were 
such  as  demanded  of  these  recluses  the  sacri- 
fice of  their  preferences  and  an  active  partici- 
pation in  the  affairs  of  life. 

What,  then,  was  the  condition  at  this  epoch 
of  religious  affairs  in  England?  At  the  open- 
ing of  the  fourteenth  century  Christianity  was 
practically  a  lost  treasure,  and  the  Christian 
life  a  lost  art.  The  teachings  of  Christ  had 
been  so  overlaid  by  foreign  accretions,  pagan 


44 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


philosophies  and  superstitions,  the  Christian 
worship  by  pagan  rites  and  ceremonies,  and 
the  example  of  Christ  by  the  legendary  lives 
of  the  saints,  that  the  germs  of  the  original 
truth  were  scarcely  discernible  in  the  midst 
of  the  rank  growths  of  fiction  and  falsehood 
that  choked  and  blighted  it.  Instead  of  fir 
tree,  had  come  up  the  thorn;  instead  of 
myrtle,  had  come  up  the  brier;  and  instead 
of  the  rose,  had  come  up  the  thistle. 

At  that  time  about  one-half  of  the  wealth 
of  the  kingdom  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Church  and  about  two-thirds  of  its  annual 
product  of  wealth,  and  the  Pope  derived  from 
revenues  out  of  England  an  annual  income 
greater  than  that  of  the  English  Crown  and 
much  greater  than  that  of  the  wealthiest 
Prince  in  Europe.  The  monastic  orders  had 
at  first  sprung  up  in  protest  against  the  sor- 
didness  and  sensuality  of  the  times,  and  the 
monasteries  had,  for  a  time,  served  as  the 
cities  of"  refuge  for  sensitive  and  aspiring 
souls  who  desired  to  escape  from  the  con- 
taminations of  an  evil  world,  and  to  give 
themselves  up  to  a  life  of  devotion  and  self- 
sacrificing  service. 

But  the  religious  orders  and  the  monas- 
teries after  a  time  outlived  their  original  pur- 
pose and  departed  from  it.  They  were  in- 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL. 


45 


vaded  by  the  spirit  of  the  surrounding  world. 
In  earlier  times,  by  their  lives  of  toil,  self- 
sacrifice,  devotion  and  service,  the  monks  had 
greatly  endeared  themselves  to  the  people. 
Their  pure  lives,  austere  habits,  exemplary  in- 
dustry and  frugality  had  won  the  confidence 
of  all  classes  of  society.  The  rich  remem- 
bered them  in  their  wills  generously.  Princes 
richly  endowed  their  houses,  and  the  poor 
gladly  shared  with  them  their  frugal  fare. 
For  nearly  two  hundred  years  the  monastic 
orders  were  the  sole  teachers  of  the  people 
in  religion,  in  agriculture,  in  science,  in  litera- 
ture, and  in  the  arts.  The  monks  were  the 
scholars,  the  preachers,  the  authors,  the  meta- 
physicians, the  theologians,  the  philosophers, 
the  painters,  the  musicians  and  the  statesmen 
of  Christendom.  Whatever  works  there  were, 
were  on  the  shelves  of  monastic  libraries;  and 
whatever  learning  there  was,  was  sheltered 
within  monastic  cloisters.  The  monasteries 
were  the  arks  which  sheltered  and  carried  the 
learning  and  the  piety  of  Europe  for  almost 
a  thousand  years,  and  preserved  them  from 
being  swept  away  by  the  flood  of  barbarism 
and  illiteracy  which  prevailed  in  the  Dark 
Ages. 

By  this  great  service  they  won  the  con- 
fidence, the  loyal  support  and  the  deepest  af- 


46  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

fections  of  the  people,  but  at  length  they  came 
to  trade  upon  this  affection  and  betray  it.  The 
monks  became  idle,  illiterate,  sordid  and  self- 
indulgent.  Dust  gathered  upon  the  books  in 
their  libraries,  moth  and  mildew  destroyed 
them.  Priceless  manuscripts  were  used  for 
kindling  fires — their  value  and  their  use  alike 
having  been  forgotten — or  they  were  used  as 
palimsests,  and  written  over  again  with  the 
fictions  and  legends  of  the  Saints.  The 
preaching  of  the  Friars,  which  at  the  start  had 
been  salutary  and  stimulating,  and  was  wel- 
comed throughout  England  with  a  burst  of 
popular  enthusiasm,  their  work  among  the 
poor  and  the  sick,  their  rescue  work  in  the 
slums  of  the  towns  and  cities,  and  their  eco- 
nomic labors  in  draining  marshes  and  re- 
claiming waste  lands  to  tillage,  and  in  im- 
proving the  methods  of  agriculture,  had  all 
greatly  endeared  them  to  the  people.  Then 
came  the  period  of  prosperity  for  them,  and 
with  it  riches  and  degeneracy.  Marble  halls 
supplanted  their  mud  and  wood  huts;  sump- 
tuous fare  their  plain  living;  luxury  and 
self-indulgence  their  simple  lives  of  activity 
and  devotion.  It  is  said  that  in  the  year  1300 
not  only  had  two-thirds  of  the  entire  revenue- 
producing  wealth  of  the  whole  kingdom 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  monastic  orders, 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL. 


47 


but  that,  incredible  as  it  now  seems,  a  sum 
five  times  greater  than  the  income  of  the 
crown  went  every  year  to  the  coffers  of  the 
Vatican. 

At  the  same  time,  the  richest  benefices  and 
Bishoprics  in  England  were  held  by  Italians, 
and  all  ecclesiastics  alike  claimed  immunity 
from  the  ordinary  taxes  of  the  realm.  The 
usual  method  of  procedure  was  somewhat 
as  follows:  A  Black  Friar  or  a  Grey  Friar 
arrived  in  town  with  his  universal  license 
to  preach,  for  the  monks  were  the  peripa- 
tetic evangelists  of  those  days.  He  rang 
the  bell  of  the  Parish  church,  and  all  who 
heard  it  assembled  in  the  church  or  the 
church-yard  to  hear  him  preach.  He  then 
received  the  contribution  of  each  in  his  open 
hand,  and  afterwards  confessed  those  who  so 
desired.  The  rite  of  confession  carried  with 
it  a  fee,  and  by  means  of  the  confessional  he 
became  possessed  of  the  secrets  of  the  people. 
For  those  who  had  committed  any  grave  sins 
or  heinous  crimes  preferred  to  confess  to  a 
travelling  Friar  rather  than  to  the  parish 
priest.  He  passed  on  and  carried  their  secret 
with  him ;  and  to  them  it  was  as  though  it 
was  not  known.  They  escaped  exposure  and 
punishment,  and  thus  a  scandal  arose  in  the 
land  over  the  escape  of  great  criminals  and 


STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

the  vast  increase  of  crime  throughout  the 
realm.  But,  although  the  Friar  passed  on,  and 
carried  the  secret  with  him,  that  secret  was 
not  forgotten.  It  was  cherished  by  him  and 
his  associates  in  order  for  future  use.  And 
when  the  time  arrived  that  the  secret  was  of 
use  and  value  to  the  order,  it  was  used  against 
the  criminal.  In  that  way  the  secrets  of  all 
the  great  families  of  Europe  came  into  the 
possession  of  the  monks,  and  gave  them  un- 
limited power.  Under  threat  of  exposure, 
they  were  able  to  extort  moneys,  lands,  privi- 
leges or  any  other  boon  they  chose  to  de- 
mand from  nobles  and  princes,  and  to  press 
into  service  the  rich  and  the  great.  And  so 
they  swarmed  like  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  tres- 
passing upon  the  most  sacred  precincts  of 
private  life,  violating  the  most  treasured 
sanctities  of  domestic  privacy,  infesting  the 
nuptial  chamber  and  the  kneading  troughs 
alike  with  their  pestiferous  meddling.  Their 
preaching  had  degenerated  into  a  mere  ex- 
hibition of  coarse  jests  and  ribald  buffoonery, 
so  that  they  were  the  travelling  clowns  and 
actors  of  their  day,  in  lieu  of  the  circus  and 
the  players,  and  it  all  too  often  happened  that 
their  jest  and  buffoonery  was  scandalous  and 
demoralizing;  so  that  they  fostered  crime  and 
encouraged  vice. 


ENGLAND WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL. 


49 


It  was  at  this  juncture,  when  the  church  had 
sunk  to  the  lowest  depths  of  moral  degener- 
acy and  spiritual  decay,  that  the  voice  of  Wyc- 
lif was  heard.  It  was  at  once  the  voice  of  a 
scholar,  a  philosopher,  a  saint  and  a  states- 
man. Wyclif  came  as  near. being  an  inde- 
pendent reformer  as  it  is  possible  to  conceive 
of  any  man  being.  He  seems  not  to  have  had 
any  precursor.  It  is  true  that  "  Piers  the 
Ploughman,"  William  Langland,  Duns  Sco- 
tus,  Roger  Bacon  and  William  of  Occam  all 
preceded  him.  It  is  true  that  he  owed  much 
to  these  men  for  their  earnest  and  uncompro- 
mising protests  against  abuses — especially  to 
Occam  for  his  strenuous  efforts  at  church  re- 
form. But  in  his  own  way,  Wyclif  was  com- 
pelled to  blaze  for  himself  a  path  through  the 
dense  forests  of  mediaeval  superstition  and 
tyranny,  and  let  in  the  light  of  truth  upon  soil 
from  which  it  had  been  excluded  for  cen- 
turies. That  was  hard  and  hazardous  work; 
but  he  performed  his  herculean  labors  with 
superhuman  wisdom  and  power.  No  one 
could  have  predicted  in  the  year  1350  that  the 
spare,  emaciated  Oxford  scholar,  the  greatest 
scholar  of  his  time,  prematurely  aged  at  forty 
by  his  great  labors,  and  very  weak  of  body, 
would  by  his  immense  wisdom,  his  immovable 
conviction,  unshaken  integrity,  his  tireless  en- 


50  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

ergy,  his  dauntless  intrepidity,  his  keen  in- 
sight and  irreproachable  purity  shake  the  ex- 
isting institutions  of  society  and  systems  of 
government  and  practices  of  religion  to  their 
foundations,  and  start  such  a  rent  within  them 
as  would  prove  irreparable  and,  slowly  widen- 
ing, bring  them  all  in  ruins  to  the  ground  at 
last.  Yet  that  is  just  what  he  did. 

The  event  that  first  called  Wyclif  from  his 
lecture  room  at  Oxford,  where  he  had  long 
been  an  object  of  great  interest  to  the  scholars 
of  Europe,  and  whither  students  from  all 
over  Europe  had  flocked  in  great  numbers  to 
hear  him  lecture,  occurred  in  1365.  A  par- 
liament was  called  in  that  year  by  Edward 
III.,  one  of  the  greatest  of  English  monarchs, 
to  consider  the  bull  of  Urban  V.,  in  which  he 
demanded  of  Edward  the  payment  of  a  tribute 
said  to  have  been  incurred  by  the  contempti- 
ble King  John  when  he  bought  the  favor  of 
the  papacy  as  against  his  barons,  and  when 
by  his  abject  and  grovelling  submission  to 
the  Pontiff,  he  had  shocked  and  shamed  all 
England.  England  had  never  submitted 
tamely  to  the  demands  of  the  papacy;  and 
this  tribute  had  been  permitted  to  lapse,  so 
that  it  was  greatly  in  arrears.  The  Statute 
of  Prsemunire,  passed  by  Parliament  in  1353, 
had  prohibited  the  introduction  or  execution 


:NGLAND — WYCLIF  TO  CROMWELL. 

of  papal  bulls  within  the  realm;  and  the  stat- 
utes of  Provisors  made  it  unlawful  for  the 
papal  authorities  to  dispose  of  English  bene- 
fices. 

When  the  Parliament  assembled  it  soon  ap- 
peared that  the  representative  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford,  John  Wyclif  by  name,  the  pale- 
faced  and  emaciated  scholar,  was  the  most 
clear-headed,  far-sighted  man  among  them. 
His  wisdom  and  his  prudence  caused  the  reply 
to  the  papal  bull  to  be  committed  into  his 
hands.  His  reply  is  a  noble  document  for  its 
wisdom  and  courage.  He  begins  with  a  state- 
ment of  grievances,  sharply  arraigns  the  pope 
for  his  rapacities  and  robberies  in  England, 
and  goes  on  to  consider  the  abuses  of  the 
Church  in  England.  That  must  have  been 
startling  and  stimulating  reading  in  the  Vati- 
can in  that  day  of  its  most  absolute  power  and 
insolent  effrontery.  It  was  a  brave  and  dar- 
ing thing  for  a  man  in  those  days  to  defy  the 
pope,  even  if  he  were  a  king  and  had  his 
country  behind  him. 

But  Wyclif  did  not  stop  with  speaking 
anonymously  under  cover  of  Parliament.  His 
soul  was  kindled  and  his  mind  fired  by  the  con- 
flict into  which  he  now  found  himself  plunged, 
and  he  girded  himself  to  the  work — and  a 
strong  work  it  was.  He  now  went  beyond 


STRUGGLE   FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


any  of  his  predecessors  in  his  attacks  upon  the 
papal  claims  and  abuses,  and  laid  his  sharp 
axe  at  the  root  of  the  matter.  He  saw  clearly 
the  relation  between  the  hierarchal  abuses  and 
the  sacerdotal  doctrines  of  the  Church,  and 
set  himself  to  correct  the  latter  in  order  to 
abolish  the  former.  When  he  saw  that  no 
reforms  were  to  be  expected  from  the  au- 
thorities, he  went  about  that  work  himself 
strenuously.  He  appealed  to  the  English 
people  in  their  vernacular.  He  issued  pam- 
phlet after  pamphlet  in  a  language  that  every- 
body could  understand;  and  he  gathered 
about  him,  first  at  Oxford,  and  afterwards  at 
Sutterworth,  bands  of  young  men  whom  he 
trained,  and  he  taught  them  the  Scriptures, 
and  how  to  preach,  indoctrinated  them  with 
his  own  principles  and  sent  them  forth  among 
the  people.  They  went  everywhere,  like  Wes- 
ley's field  preachers  and  the  Salvation  Army 
street  preachers.  In  spite  of  the  bitter  perse- 
cution to  which  they  were  subjected,  they  con- 
tinued to  flourish  until  at  one  time  it  was  said 
that  every  other  man  in  England  was  a  Lol- 
lard. 

He  struck  at  sacerdotal  doctrine  as  the  root 
of  ecclesiastical  evils.  He  denied  the  doc- 
trines of  transubstantiation,  of  purgatory,  of 
supererogation,  of  the  invocation  of  the 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  53 

saints,  of  confirmation  and  extreme  unction; 
and  of  auricular  confession.  He  denounced 
pilgrimages,  indulgences,  the  use  of  images 
in  worship,  and  other  traditional  practices. 
He  made  his  appeal  to  the  Bible  as  the  ulti- 
mate authority  in  all  questions  of  Christian 
faith  and  practice,  and  asserted  the  sacred 
rights  of  conscience,  free  from  all  priestly  co- 
ercion or  control  in  personal  concerns.  The 
character  of  the  man  appears  in  the  calm, 
firm  words  with  which  he  closes  his  reply  to 
John  of  Gaunt,  when  he  commanded  him  to 
be  silent — "  I  believe  that  in  the  end  the  truth 
will  prevail." 

Wyclif  undertook  the  translation  of  the  Bi- 
ble into  the  vernacular,  and  gathered  about 
him  a  body  of  earnest-minded,  pure-souled, 
heroic-spirited  men  like  himself,  whom  he  in- 
spired with  his  own  enthusiasm  and  taught 
his  own  great  doctrines.  The  work  of  these 
men  went  on  long  after  he  was  dead.  They 
spread  everywhere  the  knowledge  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  put  the  books  of  the  Bible 
into  the  people's  hands,  and  taught  them  to 
read.  A  people  known  as  "  The  Lord's " 
arose,  who  were  the  result  of  that  work — a 
God-fearing,  Bible-reading,  truth-loving  peo- 
ple, who  obeyed  God  and  feared  not  man; 
and  kept  the  altar  fires  of  love  to  Him  aflame 


54  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

with  their  faith,  even  as  with  their  bodies 
they  fed  the  flames  which  illumined  Smith- 
field,  and  made  the  place  holy  ground  for 
liberty-loving  Englishmen. 

The  work  of  Wyclif  discloses  a  man  of  im- 
mense and  varied  intellectual  powers.  He  is 
the  founder  of  our  modern  English  tongue, 
the  inaugurator  of  our  modern  English  liter- 
ature. He  was  a  master  of  simple,  sinewy, 
comprehensive  prose,  and  first  used  the  ver- 
nacular as  a  vehicle  of  conveying  profound 
philosophic  and  religious  truth  to  the  people. 
At  Sutterworth  he  prepared  a  new  edition  of 
the  English  Bible  for  the  common  people, 
which  gave  tone  and  character  to  English 
speech  by  its  simple  dignity  and  stately  form. 
He  was  a  bold  and  unsparing  opponent  of 
falsehood  and  corruption,  an  indefatigable 
reformer,  and  a  skillful  organizer  of  a  new 
religious  movement.  In  him  there  was  a 
blending  of  many  diverse  qualities.  He  was 
like  Luther  in  his  boldness,  fearlessness  and 
force  of  character;  in  the  sharpness  of  his 
irony  and  the  power  of  his  invective.  He  was 
like  Melancthon  in  the  thoroughnessand  ripe- 
ness of  his  scholarship.  In  personal  charm, 
amiability  of  temper  and  finish  of  literary 
quality  he  resembled  Erasmus;  and  was  like 
Calvin  in  his  dialectic  skill,  metaphysical  acu- 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  55 

men,  restless  energy,  patient  persistence,  in- 
flexible fortitude  and  the  unsullied  spirit  of  his 
life. 

The  effect  of  Wyclif  s  work  appeared  later 
on,  when  Henry  VIII.  came  to  his  dispute 
witrjL,lhe  papacy.  Henry  found  the  nation 
learned  with  Wyclif's  doctrines  and  enlight- 
ened by  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  What- 
ever Henry's  motives  may  have  been  in  his 
break  with  Rome,  there  could  be  no  doubt  as 
to  those  which  animated  such  men  as  Cranmer, 
Latimer  and  Ridley  and  their  associates,  and 
swayed  the  people.  The  universities  were  in 
a  ferment  with  the  new  learning.  Men  like 
Erasmus  and  Colet  had  aroused  the  spirit  of 
inquiry  and  fired  the  minds  of  students  with 
an  eager  desire  for  learning;  had  opened  the 
sources  of  information  by  translations  of  an- 
cient documents  and  were  guiding  groping 
minds  by  their  lectures  and  commentaries. 
Sir  Thomas  Moore  wrote  "  Utopia,"  and  gave 
England  a  most  impressive  lesson  in  the  evils 
of  her  own  time  by  furnishing  her  a  standard 
of  comparison  in  the  imaginary  state  where 
justice,  liberty  and  right  prevailed.  Hugh 
Latimer  also  was  "  laying  his  whole  body  into 
the  bow,"  as  he  says  his  father  taught  him  to 
do  in  archery,  and,  with  an  irresistible  force, 
sending  his  swift-winged,  fire-tipped,  sun- 


56  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

aimed  arrows  straight  against  the  evils  of  the 
time  from  many  pulpits.  The  children  on  the 
street  cried  after  him,  "  Have  at  them,  Mas- 
ter Latimer,  have  at  them !  " 

Wyclif  s  work  had  told  at  last.  A  majority 
of  the  people  stood  ready  to  support  the  King 
in  a  break  with  Rome.  They  might  or  might 
not  approve  of  his  motives  and  object;  but 
they  did  approve  of  the  fact  itself.  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  any  such  move  could  have  been 
sustained  earlier,  or  whether  it  could  have 
been  deferred  much  longer.  Certain  it  is  that 
the  initial  movement  to  it  did  not  originate 
with  the  King  or  with  his  minister.  Woolsey 
was  driven  from  power,  and  Moore  lost  his 
head  rather  than  sanction  it.  It  was  Cranmer 
who  suggested  that  the  King  appeal  from  the 
Pope  to  the  universities  the  question  of  his 
divorce  from  Catherine  of  Aragon.  And  it 
was  Cranmer  who,  on  taking  the  office  of 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  set  the  example 
of  revolt  to  the  English  clergy  by  declining 
to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Rome  and 
took  the  oath  of  the  Royal  Supremacy  in- 
stead. He  was  the  first  Protestant  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury. 

For  there  had  now  come  a  time  of  transi- 
tion in  England.  The  Romanist  power  was 
still  strong,  but  waning;  the  Protestant  in- 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROM1 

fluence  was  also  strong,  but  not  supreme,  and 
the  King  was  able  to  hold  the  balance  of 
power  and  play  off  the  one  party  against  the 
other,  as  suited  his  interests  or  caprices.  And 
that  he  did  with  such  skill  as  to  make  him- 
self absolute  in  all  matters,  both  temporal  and 
spiritual.  He  permitted  the  abuses  of  the 
Church  to  be  corrected,  but  always  to  his  own 
profit.  Corrupt  ecclesiastics  were  deposed 
and  powerful  ecclesiastic  institutions  sup- 
pressed, such  as  their  courts  of  law  and  mon- 
asteries. These  latter  being  immensely 
wealthy,  had  all  their  possessions  confiscated 
to  the  crown,  and  so  greatly  enriched  both 
the  King  and  his  favorites. 

In  1533  Cranmer  became  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  in  him  Henry  had  a  subtle 
and  powerful  ally,  and  the  people  a  wise  and 
judicious  leader.  He  was  a  Protestant  and  a 
diplomat.  He  soon  reached  a  stage  in  doc- 
trine equal  to  that  at  which  he  had  arrived  in 
polity,  and  set  himself  diligently  not  only  to 
translate  the  Bible  but  to  compile  also  the 
English  Prayer  Book.  This  he  did  with  the 
cooperation  and  assistance  of  Hugh  Latimer 
and  Master  Ridley.  At  his  suggestion  and 
by  his  request,  the  objectionable  features  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  and  worship 
were  discontinued  in  England.  The  refusal 


58  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

of  the  Pope  to  confirm  the  decision  of  the 
universities  in  favor  of  the  King's  divorce  led 
Henry  to  secure  from  Parliament  the  statute 
which  severed  the  English  Church  from 
Rome  by  vesting  its  headship  in  the  crown. 
That  was  the  change  in  the  English  Church 
which  Henry  wanted,  and  it  was  the  only 
change  which  either  he  or  Elizabeth  ever 
willingly  endorsed. 

During  the  brief  reign  of  Edward  VI., 
Cranmer  was  by  far  the  most  influential  man 
in  the  kingdom,  and  his  Protestant  views  be- 
came established,  both  at  court  and  among 
the  people,  so  that  when  Mary  came  to  the 
throne  and  undertook  to  extirpate  Protestant- 
ism in  England  with  fire  and  sword,  and  sent 
Cranmer  and  his  associates  to  the  stake,  she 
found  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  depopu- 
late the  land  and  exterminate  the  nation  in 
order  to  accomplish  her  designs. 

Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  in  1558,  and 
held  a  middle  course  throughout  her  reign. 
Her  bias,  as  it  appears  in  several  overtures  to 
the  Papal  See,  and  in  her  wily  vacillation  be- 
tween Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  sym- 
pathies, was  undoubtedly  towards  Romanism ; 
but  her  personal  interests  kept  her  from 
openly  deserting  the  Protestant  cause. 
Throughout  her  long  and  eventful  reign  she 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF  TO   CROMWELL.  59 

held  a  highly  conservative  and  judicial  course, 
which  enabled  the  Protestant  sympathies  and 
tendencies  of  her  subjects  to  take  form  and 
develop,  and  secured  to  the  succeeding  cen- 
tury the  indestructible  permanency  of  Pro- 
testantism in  England  and  the  leadership  of 
England  in  the  Protestantism  of  the  world. 

The  later  agitations  and  conflicts  in  Eng- 
land for  a  century  and  a  half  after  Henry  and 
Cranmer  arose  over  those  points  not  secured 
by  the  Reformation  under  Henry.  The  royal 
headship  of  the  church — the  connection  be- 
tween State  and  Church — was  an  offence  to 
many.  The  demand  arose  for  the  substitu- 
tion of  the  communion  table  for  the  altar. 
The  use  of  any  vestments  whatever  was 
strongly  opposed;  and  later  on  the  prayer- 
book  was  included  in  the  protest,  and  finally 
Episcopacy  itself  was  attacked. 
^X^11  the  time  °f  Elizabeth  two  parties  arose 
^.to  push  the  matter  of  church  reform — the 
Puritans  and  the  Separatists.  The  Puritans 
were  Church  of  England  men ;  did  not  desire 
to  separate  from  it;  but  agitated  for  its  re- 
form. They  were  called  Puritans  because 
they  wanted  the  church  purified  of  its  remain- 
ing abuses.  They  wanted  a  godly  ministry, 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  day  as  a  holy 
day,  not  as  a  holiday,  and  a  simpler  form  of 


60  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

worship,  such  as  was  used  by  their  Protestant 
brethren  on  the  Continent.  The  opposition 
which  these  demands  met  drove  some  of  the 
Puritans  to  a  separation  from  the  church  and 
the  creation  of  a  new  party  known  as  the 
Separatists.  They,  like  Wyclif,  saw  no  hope 
of  having  their  demands  met,  and  so  they  set 
about  the  work  of  reform  themselves,  with- 
drew from  the  established  church,  and  formed 
independent  congregations  of  their  own  on 
the  principles  which  they  despaired  of  seeing 
enforced  in  the  Establishment.  These  were 
the  ecclesiastical  ancestors  of  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  in  England  and  America.  Them 
Elizabeth  hated  and  persecuted  with  all  her 
heart.  She  was  never  more  than  half  a  Prot- 
estant, and,  as  we  know  from  her  negotiations 
with  Rome,  was  only  prevented  from  becom- 
ing a  Romanist  openly  by  the  refusal  of  the 
Papacy  to  recognize  her  title  to  the  throne. 
In  her  own  chapel  she  went  as  far  as  she  could 
in  observing  the  Romish  ritual,  and  as  far  as 
she  dared  she  showed  her  disapproval  of  all 
reforming  tendencies  in  the  church  at  large. 
But  Elizabeth,  like  all  the  Tudors,  was  a 
diplomat,  and  used  moderation  and  judgment 
in  her  dealings,  so  that  the  fruit  of  the  Refor- 
mation born  in  Henry's  time  ripened  and  mel- 
lowed during  her  long  and  magnificent  reign3 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  6 1 

ind  was  prepared  for  gathering  in  the  follow- 
ing century. 

One  of  the  greatest  misfortunes  that  ever 
befell  a  nation  came  upon  England  in  the 
accession  of  the  house  of  Stuart  to  the 
throne  in  the  person  of  James  I.  He 
was  a  man  of  considerable  intellectual  abil- 
ity and  attainments,  but  of  a  mean  and 
contemptible  spirit.  Brought  up  in  Scot- 
land, under  the  Presbyterian  form  of  church 
life,  he  had  conceived  a  deep  and  unalterable 
hatred  for  its  strict  discipline  and  high 
moral  requirements.  The  Scottish  clergy  did 
not  hesitate  to  rebuke  their  King  for  his 
drunkenness  and  denounce  him  for  his  licen- 
tiousness. But  he  found  the  English  clergy 
hat  in  hand,  obsequious  and  fawning.  And 
along  with  his  idea  of  the  Divine  right  of 
Kings,  he  soon  originated  also  the  Divine 
right  of  Bishops.  His  well-known  phrase  was, 
"  No  Bishop,  no  King."  In  consequence  of 
such  declarations,  a  bishop  declared  James  in- 
spired of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  the  doctrine  of 
absolute  and  unqualified  submission  to  the 
royal  will  began  to  be  preached  in  the 
churches.  All  forms  of  dissent  began  to  be 
hunted  down  with  unsparing  severity.  Inde- 
pendent and  thoughtful  men  foreboded  disas- 
ter, and  those  who  could  began  to  quit  Eng- 


62  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

land.  It  was  at  that  time  that  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  went  to  Holland  and  afterwards  came 
to  America,  and  that  the  first  Parliament 
called  by  James  felt  called  upon  to  remon- 
strate with  him,  which  they  did,  as  follows: 
"  Your  Majesty  would  be  misinformed  if  any 
man  should  deliver  that  the  kings  of  England 
have  any  absolute  power  in  themselves  either 
to  alter  religion  or  to  make  any  laws  concern- 
ing the  same  otherwise  than  as  in  temporal 
causes  by  consent  of  Parliament;  "  and  again: 
"  Let  your  Majesty  be  pleased  to  receive  pub- 
lic information  from  your  Commons  in  Par- 
liament as  well  of  the  abuses  in  the  church  as 
in  the  civil  state  and  government."  One 
would  think  that  such  a  communication 
would  serve  as  a  gentle  reminder  to  the 
King  of  the  state  of  mind,  the  disposition  and 
the  temper  of  the  people  among  whom  he  had 
come. 

But  there  is  a  cast  of  mind  which  seems 
to  be  utterly  oblivious  to  the  effect  of  its  own 
actions  upon  others.  There  are  men  who 
speak  and  act  in  such  total  disregard  for 
other  men's  thoughts  and  feelings  as  to 
suggest  an  entire  and  total  absence  from 
them  of  anything  like  sympathy  with  or 
understanding  of  human  nature.  They  are  so 
absorbed  in  the  workings  of  their  own  minds 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  63 

that  it  never  occurs  to  them  to  observe  how 
the  minds  of  other  men  work — self-centered 
men  who  are  not  only  a  law  unto  themselves, 
but  who  seek  to  make  themselves  a  law  unto 
others.  Infatuated  with  their  own  personal- 
ity, they  assume  the  role  of  omniscience  and 
infallibility.  Such  men,  if  they  are  placed  in 
any  position  of  authority  and  command,  are 
tyrants;  and  if  they,  by  any  chance,  come  to 
the  supreme  power  in  a  nation,  they  are 
despots.  The  Stuarts  were  men  of  that  sort. 
In  James  I.  and  Charles  II.  the  iron  hand  was 
gloved  with  the  velvet  of  amiability  and  a 
ready,  nimble,  genial  wit;  but  in  Charles  I. 
and  James  II.  it  lurked  beneath  a  flimsy  tissue 
of  cold  reserve,  sphynx-like  stupidity  and 
clumsy  falsehood,  which  was  constantly  re- 
vealing the  designs  it  was  meant  to  hide,  as 
the  stupidity  of  deception  is  always  bound  to 
do. 

The  state  and  church  policy  of  James  I. 
brought  Charles  I.  into  open  conflict  with  the 
nation  as  represented  in  Parliament.  With 
such  ministers  as  Buckingham  and  Went- 
worth,  and  with  Laud  as  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, who  not  only  seconded  him  in  his 
effort  at  absolutism,  but  went  beyond  him  in 
every  measure  calculated  to  enslave  the  peo- 
ple and  establish  the  throne  in  an  impossible 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


despotism ;  and  with  a  people  like  the  English 
free-born,  with  centuries  of  freedom  behind 
them,  loving  freedom  more  than  life,  and  as 
determined  to  be  free  as  the  King  was  to  be 
absolute,  there  could  be  but  one  issue  to  the 
strife,  and  that  was  the  destruction  of  the  one 
or  the  other  party;  and  since  the  people  were 
not  of  a  kind  to  annihilate  themselves,  it 
meant  finally  the  destruction  of  the  King. 
But  that  was  later,  as  we  shall  see.  At  first, 
after  the  accession  of  the  Stuarts,  despotism 
increased.  The  Star-Chamber  took  the  place 
of  Parliament,  and  the  high  commission  took 
the  place  of  ecclesiastical  courts  and  convoca- 
tions; the  reign  of  tyranny  was  established. 
It  was  during  that  time  that  a  young  man 
named  John  Milton  was  prevented  from  tak- 
ing orders  in  the  church,  because,  as  he  said, 
"  to  take  orders  meant  to  subscribe  yourself  a 
slave,"  and  it  was  then  that  he  wrote  his  great 
protest  "  Comus  " ;  and  that  Hampton  sent  a 
thrill  of  new  life  and  hope  through  England 
by  his  resistance  of  the  illegal  levy  and  des- 
potic collection  of  ship  money.  And  when 
Parliament  at  last  assembled,  the  threat  of  the 
King  to  dissolve  it  if  it  did  not  refrain  from 
meddling  with  affairs  of  state  and  undoing  the 
work  of  fifteen  years  of  tyranny  by  declaring 
his  acts  illegal,  and  sending  his  ministers  and 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  65 

prelates  to  prison  and  the  block,  as  it  did  in 
the  cases  of  the  chief  of  them,  caused  Parlia- 
ment to  pass  a  bill  declining  to  be  dissolved 
save  by  its  own  consent,  and  later  another, 
in  which  it  declared  to  the  House  of  Lords, 
whose  policy  of  obstruction  came  well-nigh 
undoing  all  the  good  work  of  the  Commons, 
"  The  Commons  will  be  glad  to  have  your 
concurrence  and  help  in  saving  the  kingdom, 
but  if  they  fail  of  it,  it  should  not  discourage 
them  of  doing  their  duty;  and  whether  the 
kingdom  be  lost  or  saved,  they  shall  be  sorry 
that  the  story  of  this  present  Parliament 
should  tell-tale  posterity  that  in  so  great  a 
danger  and  extremity  the  House  of  Com- 
mons should  be  enforced  to  save  the  kingdom 
alone."  And  although  a  warning  voice  was 
sounded  in  the  ears  of  Charles  to  the  effect, 
"  They  who  go  about  to  break  Parliament  are 
broken  by  Parliament,"  he  turned  a  deaf  ear 
to  wisdom.  He  at  once  proceeded  to  raise 
troops  by  Royal  commission  to  be  used 
against  Parliament,  and  Parliament  in  turn 
was  forced  to  arms.  Already  the  men  had 
sailed  from  Dover  with  the  crown  jewels  to 
buy  munitions  of  war,  and  attempts  were  be- 
ing made  to  raise  an  army  in  the  North. 

But  even  though  controversy  had  taken  the 
form  of  armed  hostility,  the  Parliament  was 


66  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

reluctant  to  conquer.  It  did  not  want  to  con- 
quer or  humiliate  its  King.  Essex  and  Man- 
chester, who  headed  the  Parliamentary  army, 
were  agreed  in  declining  to  come  to  a  de- 
cisive battle  with  the  Royal  forces  and  so  end 
the  war.  They  thought  to  teach  the  King  a 
lesson  and  bring  him  to  his  senses  by  showing 
him  where  the  real  power  of  the  kingdom  lay. 
And  so  they  refused  to  take  him  captive  when 
it  was  perfectly  clear,  both  at  Northampton 
and  at  Edge  Hill,  that  they  might  easily  do 
so.  Charles  interpreted  their  hesitancy  as 
weakness  and  fear,  and  was  the  more  resolved 
to  fight.  Although  he  had  forbidden  freedom 
of  speech  in  Parliament,  and  had  put  its  lead- 
ers in  prison;  although  he  had  robbed  his 
subjects  disastrously  and  illegally  imperilled 
their  lives,  they  were  still  ready  to  forgive 
their  King  and  restore  him  to  favor  on  the 
slightest  return  of  reason  to  its  bereft  throne. 
But  Charles  was  as  incapable  of  reason  as  he 
was  of  generosity  or  justice;  and  it  was  not 
until  the  battle  of  Naseby,  when  the  King's 
baggage  and  all  his  papers  were  captured,  and 
the  depth  of  his  perfidy  was  revealed  in  a  con- 
spiracy to  bring  in  a  Roman  Catholic  army, 
and  his  solemn  promise  to  grant  all  the  de- 
mands of  the  Roman  Catholic  party,  that  his 
fate  was  sealed. 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF  TO   CROMWELL.  67 

Let  us,  however,  go  back  a  little.  With 
Charles  I.  pandemonium  had  again  returned 
to  England  and  reigned  supreme.  He  was  at 
heart  a  Romanist,  and  was  pledged  to  Louis 
XIV.  of  France  to  re-establish  Roman  rule  in 
England. 

^  His  oath  to  maintain  religious  toleration  in 
England  was  never  kept  nor  meant  to  be.  He 
played  off  the  Episcopalians,  the  Presbyteri- 
ans and  the  Independents  against  one  another, 
and  protected  the  Romanists  as  far  as  he 
dared;  his  unblushing  sensuality,  frivolous  na- 
ture and  trifling  spirit  outraged  and  exasper- 
ated the  nation.  James  II.,  who  succeeded  him, 
was  as  cold-blooded  and  morose  as  Charles 
had  been  good-natured  and  frivolous;  but  no 
less  a  sensualist  and  far  more  wrong-headed 
a-nd  obstinate.  A  fatal  Nemesis  in  the  form  of 
short-sightedness,  wrong-headedness  and  ob- 
stinacy, together  with  a  total  inability  to  learn 
by  experience,  attended  the  Stuart  race  from 
the  beginning,  brought  them  into  increas- 
ingly greater  difficulties,  as  though  by  the  de- 
sign of  some  evil  genius;  and  finally  made  an 
end  of  them.  So  malignant  and  unrelenting 
was  James  in  his  determination  to  re-establish 
Romanism,  that  he  placed  in  the  Chief  Justice- 
ship the  brutal  tool  known  to  history  as  the 
"  Bloody  Jeffries  " — who  was  also  placed  at 


68  STRUGGLE  FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

the  head  of  the  illegal  High  Commission — 
who  went  everywhere  in  England,  shutting  up 
in  prison,  hanging,  beheading,  and  burning 
the  noblest,  the  ablest,  the  most  virtuous,  and 
the  most  loyal  subjects  on  the  flimsiest  of  pre- 
tences, because  they  were  not  found  conform- 
able to  the  Royal  will  in  the  matter  of  re- 
establishing Romanism  in  the  land.  His  per- 
sistent attempt  to  subvert  the  Protestant  re- 
ligion brought  at  length  upon  James  a  just 
judgment.  The  people  were  unreconcilably 
alienated  from  him  and  his  house.  Twice  he 
fled  for  his  life,  and  the  second  time  before 
the  advancing  army  of  his  son-in-law,  William 
of  Orange,  who,  at  the  invitation  of  the  peo- 
ple, came  over  from  Holland,  where  he  was 
Stadtholder,  to  share  the  throne  with  his  wife ; 
and  Protestantism  was  at  last  firmly  and  in- 
contestably  established  in  England.  On  his 
accession  the  Act  of  Toleration  secured  prac- 
tical religious  liberty  to  England.  The  Ro- 
manists were  excluded  from  its  privileges,  it 
is  true,  but  that  was  due  more  to  political  than 
to  religious  causes;  for  they  formed  a  small  but 
resolute  political  party  under  a  religious  guise 
bent  on  the  subversion  of  English  liberties 
and  constitutional  government.  The  welfare 
of  the  state  demanded  that  they  be  held  in 
check ;  but  it  was  unfortunate,  and  their  own 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF  TO   CROMWELL.  69 

fault,  that  pressure  had  to  be  brought  to  bear 
on  the  side  of  religion.  But  the  real  issues 
of  the  Reformation  had  been  established  and 
fixed,  and  it  required  only  a  century  of  peace 
and  justice  so  to  work  them  out  that  they 
would  appear  at  their  real  value  to  all  men, 
even  as  they  did  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  by  statute  laws,  when  re- 
ligious disabilities  were  removed. 

At  Marston  Moor,  however,  a  new  force 
and  a  new  man  appeared.  It  was  the  first  ap- 
pearance on  any  battlefield  of  a  brigade  which 
was  to  grow  into  an  army,  was  to  be  known 
as  the  "  Ironsides,"  and  was  never  to  know 
defeat  on  any  battlefield.  The  general  of  these 
brave  men  was  one  Cromwell,  a  Yorkshire 
farmer  of  some  means,  and  of  a  famous  ances- 
try. His  forbears  had  sat  in  the  Parliaments 
of  Elizabeth,  and  himself  in  those  of  James. 
On  his  mother's  side,  he  was  connected  with 
the  Hampdens,  and  with  Sir  John  Oliver. 
When  his  father  died,  he  was  a  student  at 
Cambridge;  but  returned  home  to  take  up 
the  duties  of  head  of  the  family. 

Oliver  Cromwell  saw  that  the  fight  was  not 
between  the  King  and  his  Parliament,  but  be- 
tween warring  and  irreconcilable  religious  fac- 
tions. A  religious  principle  was  at  stake.  It 
was  a  moral,  not  a  civil  issue.  And  so,  on  his 


70  STRUGGLE   FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

own  responsibility,  and  at  his  own  expense, 
Cromwell  raised  a  regiment  of  one  thousand, 
every  one  of  them  picked  according  to  his 
view;  which  was,  as  he  wrote  to  Hamp- 
den,  that  religious  enthusiasm  alone  could 
meet  and  defeat  the  Cavaliers.  In  other 
words,  they  were  not  mercenary  troops,  not 
soldiers  of  fortune;  neither  were  they  the 
idlers  and  stragglers  and  adventurers  of  the 
city.  They  were,  on  the  contrary,  sturdy  and 
substantial  yeomen,  neighbors  of  their  gen- 
eral, and  of  his  religious  persuasion  and  aus- 
tere manner  of  life.  They  were  "  men  of 
religion,"  as  Cromwell  called  them,  who  ad- 
ventured their  earthly  all  for  their  convictions, 
and  looked  for  nothing  in  return  but  freedom 
of  conscience  and  liberty  to  worship  God  ac- 
cording to  their  convictions.  Such  men  were 
greatly  to  be  feared  in  a  religious  war.  They 
could  forgive  Charles  that  he  had  taxed 
them  contrary  to  the  law  and  even  oppres- 
sively; that  he  had  interfered  with  the  free- 
dom of  speech  in  Parliament,  and  put  its  lead- 
ers in  the  Tower;  and  that  he  threatened  the 
personal  liberty  and  the  lives  of  every  subject 
who  disagreed  with  him ;  and  three-fourths  of 
his  subjects  did  so  disagree  with  him,  and  were 
so  threatened  by  him.  But  they  could  not 
forgive  him  that  he  should  set  himself  in  the 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  Jl 

place  of  God  to  them,  and  seek  to  make  his 
will  and  the  wills  of  his  court  favorites,  Buck- 
ingham, Wentworth  and  Laud,  supreme,  and 
above  the  will  of  God.  When  they  saw  that  to 
be  his  purpose,  they  rose  in  a  body  and  said 
with  Elliot,  "Danger  enlarges  itself  in  so  great 
a  measure  that  nothing  but  Heaven  shrouds 
us  from  despair."  "  The  Gospel,"  said  Elliot, 
in  a  speech  in  Parliament,  "  is  that  truth  in 
which  this  kingdom  has  been  happy  in  a  long 
and  rare  prosperity.  This  ground,  therefore, 
let  us  lay  for  a  foundation  of  our  building, 
that  that  truth,  not  with  words,  but  with  ac- 
tions, we  will  maintain :  "  and  the  following : 
"  there  is  a  ceremony  used  in  the  Eastern 
churches  of  standing  at  the  repetition  of  the 
creed,  to  testify  the  purpose  to  maintain  it, 
not  only  with  their  bodies  upright,  but  with 
their  swords  drawn — give  me  leave  to  call  that 
a  custom  very  commendable." 

If  the  infatuated  and  obdurate  Charles  had 
but  had  ears,  he  would  have  heard  in  those 
and  similar  speeches  from  Elliot  and  Hamp- 
den  and  Vane ;  from  Cromwell  and  Sells  and 
Pym;  from  Sidney  and  Victon  Hollis  and 
Strode  and  Haselrig,  words  of  warning;  and 
had  he  but  had  wisdom,  he  would  have  taken 
knowledge  in  time  of  the  temper  and  spirit  of 
the  people. 


STRUGGLE  FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


The  success  of  Cromwell  led  to  a  reorgani- 
zation of  the  Parliamentary  army  on  his  basis, 
which  was  called  the  new  model,  and  his  dar- 
ing brought  him  rapidly  to  the  front.  At 
Newbury,  the  King  might  have  been  cap- 
tured; but  Manchester  declined,  and  Crom- 
well accused  him  to  Parliament  of  "  being 
afraid  to  conquer/'  and  he  declared,  "  If  I  met 
the  King  in  battle,  I  would  fire  my  pistol  at  the 
King  as  at  another."  There  was  a  new  basis 
on  which  to  fight.  That  was  the  beginning 
of  the  end.  In  less  than  a  year's  time  Naseby 
was  fought  to  win,  the  King's  forces  were 
broken,  his  troops  surrounded,  his  baggage, 
papers  and  ordnance  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Parliament.  Charles  took  refuge  with  the 
Scots,  who,  in  turn,  handed  him  over  to  Par- 
liament. The  army  of  the  New  Model  or- 
dered to  disband,  Cromwell  returned  to  the 
pursuits  of  peace.  The  army,  instead,  how- 
ever, of  disbanding,  as  ordered  by  Parlia- 
ment, lay,  as  it  were,  with  arms,  to  watch  the 
course  of  affairs ;  and  when  it  saw  that  Parlia- 
ment was  bent  on  despotism,  just  as  the  King 
had  been,  and  would  force  Presbyterianism 
on  the  country,  as  he  had  tried  to  force  Ca- 
tholicism, it  rallied  to  Triploe  Heath,  and 
raised  the  cry  of  justice.  Civil  war  broke  out 
afresh;  but  there  were  now  three  parties  to 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  73 

fight — the  King,  Parliament  and  the  army. 
Cromwell  now  returned  to  the  army,  and  in 
three  days  it  was  in  full  march  upon  London, 
with  a  demand  for  the  settlement  of  the  peace 
of  the  kingdom,  the  preservation  of  the  rights 
and  liberties  of  the  subjects,  the  freedom  of 
conscience,  and  religious  toleration  secured. 
These  demands  neither  Parliament  nor  the 
King  were  minded  to  grant;  but  each  in  his 
own  way  was  determined  to  subvert.  The 
army  finally  took  possession  of  London  and 
of  the  Parliament,  and  proceeded  to  negotiate 
with  the  King  on  a  basis  of  great  moderation. 
Charles,  however,  was  dead  to  all  appeals.  He 
temporized  and  evaded.  "  Playing  off,"  as  he 
wrote  to  a  friend,  "  one  party  against  the 
other,"  until  the  soldiers,  exasperated  and 
suspicious,  cried  out  for  a  complete  reorgani- 
zation of  the  government,  the  abolition  of  the 
House  of  Lords  and  of  monarchy.  In  the 
crisis  Cromwell  stood  alone,  insisting  upon 
negotiations  with  the  King  and  the  most  con- 
servative measures. 

During  all  this  time  Charles  was  endeavor- 
ing to  embroil  the  English  and  the  Scotch, 
hoping  to  get  advantage  of  the  army  in  that 
way ;  and  finally,  becoming  impatient,  he  took 
flight  while  the  negotiations  were  at  their 
height.  Cromwell  found  that  he  had  been 


74  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

duped,  and  wrote,  "  The  King  is  a  man  of 
great  parts  and  great  understanding,  but  so 
great  a  dissembler  and  so  false  a  man  that  he 
is  not  to  be  trusted."  Civil  war  now  broke 
out  afresh,  and  with  its  coming  all  thought  of 
reconciliation  with  the  King  was  swept  from 
the  minds  of  the  army  and  its  leaders.  They 
gathered  in  a  solemn  prayer-meeting,  and  en- 
tered into  a  solemn  resolution  and  covenant, 
"  that  it  was  our  duty,  if  ever  the  Lord 
brought  us  back  again  to  peace,  to  call 
Charles  Stuart,  that  man  of  blood,  to  account 
for  the  blood  he  has  shed  and  the  mischief  he 
has  wrought  to  his  utmost  against  the  Lord's 
cause  and  the  people  in  this  poor  nation." 

In  the  midst  of  the  turmoil  and  strife, 
Cromwell  appears  as  the  commanding  genius, 
the  presiding  spirit  of  the  nation — the  real 
king  of  England.  The  boldness  of  his  policy, 
and  the  celerity  of  his  movements,  confounded 
and  defeated  all  opposition.  It  was  a  time 
when  lawlessness  was  rife  in  England.  A  half 
century  of  misrule  and  other  disregard  for 
law  on  the  part  of  the  King  and  his  ministers, 
together  with  their  strenuous  and  stubborn 
attempts  to  break  down  all  constitutional  re- 
straints upon  the  throne,  had  made  England 
drunk  with  the  usurpation  of  powers,  and  mad 
with  defiance  of  law.  A  certain  recklessness 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  75 

had  seized  all  the  classes  of  the  people,  and  in 
the  midst  of  the  wreck  of  law  and  order  the 
question  for  each  party  became  that  of  actual 
power.  All  rights  and  privileges  were  in 
abeyance.  Cromwell  had  the  power  and  the 
ability  to  use  it.  He  seized  the  King,  and 
then  marched  upon  London.  A  court  was 
formed  for  the  trial  of  the  King,  who  denied 
its  jurisdiction.  He  was  none  the  less  found 
guilty,  at  the  mouths  of  thirty-two  witnesses, 
and  condemned  to  death,  as  a  tyrant,  a  traitor, 
a  murderer,  and  enemy  of  his  country.  And 
thus  was  brought  to  pass  the  saying  of  "  They 
who  go  about  to  break  Parliaments  are  sure 
to  be  broken  by  them." 

Parliament  now  proceeded  to  appoint  a 
Council  of  State,  to  take  the  place  of  the 
King,  then  to  abolish  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  then  to  establish  a  free  state,  with  the 
authority  of  the  nation  vested  in  "  The  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  in  Parliament/'  The 
army  proceeded  to  lay  down  the  program 
of  procedure,  insisted  upon  the  dissolution 
of  the  old  Parliament  and  the  election  of  a 
new  one,  on  the  basis  of  a  redistribution  of 
seats,  such  as  would  give  representation  to 
all  towns  of  importance,  and  election  to  all 
house-holders  even  among  the  poor.  The 
House  accepted  the  proposal,  but  hesitated  to 


76  STRUGGLE  FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

disband.  Disorders  arose  in  the  army  in  con- 
sequence. Charles  II.  soon  landed  upon  the 
coast  of  Scotland,  and  Cromwell,  who  had 
meanwhile  wreaked  summary  justice  in  Ire- 
land, started  for  the  North,  spreading  a  whole- 
some respect  for  the  army  as  he  marched.  At 
Dunbar  and  Winchester,  he  routed  the  Loyal- 
ist forces  and  cut  them  to  pieces,  and  sent 
Charles  flying  once  more  across  the  seas.  But 
Parliament  still  reigned,  and  meditated  meas- 
ures for  the  disbandment  of  the  army,  in  spite 
of  its  pledges  to  disband  itself.  It  even,  in  the 
person  of  Sir  Harry  Vane,  introduced  a  bill 
for  the  continuance  of  its  own  members  in  the 
next  Parliament,  with  the  right  of  revision  of 
all  elections  reserved  to  them.  In  other 
words,  it  was  trying  to  make  of  itself  a  self- 
perpetuating  body,  with  the  supreme  power  in 
its  own  hands.  It  was  while  Sir  Harry  Vane 
was  pressing  this  bill  upon  the  House,  in  spite 
of  a  compact  made  the  evening  before  with 
the  Council  of  State,  that  neither  side  should 
do  anything  without  another  conference,  that 
Cromwell  exclaimed,  when  he  heard  of  it, 
''  This  is  perfidy !  "  and  summoning  thirty 
musketeers  to  follow  him,  went  to  the  House. 
He  sat  through  Vane's  speech,  and  at  the 
moment  of  putting  the  motion  to  the  House, 
he  rose  and  spoke  against  the  bill.  He  waxed 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  77 

warm  as  he  spoke  of  the  injustice,  self-interest 
and  delay  of  the  Commons,  and  finally  cried 
out,  "  Your  hour  is  come !  "  Then,  amidst  an 
uproar,  he  clapped  his  hat  upon  his  head,  and 
advanced  to  the  middle  of  the  floor,  his  voice 
rising  above  the  tumult,  he  was  heard  to  cry : 
"  The  Lord  hath  done  with  you !  Come, 
come,  we  have  had  enough  of  this.  I  will  put 
an  end  to  your  prating.  It  is  not  fit  that  you 
should  sit  here  any  longer;  you  should  give 
place  to  better  men;  you  are  no  Parliament." 
And  as  the  musketeers  entered,  at  a  signal 
from  their  general,  he  called  to  the  members 
as  they  passed  him  such  invectives  as  their 
conduct  merited,  and  to  Vane's  protest  he 
cried  out :  "Ah,  Sir  Harry  Vane,  Sir  Harry 
Vane,  you  might  have  prevented  all  this,  but 
you  are  a  juggler,  and  have  no  common  hon- 
esty! The  Lord  deliver  me  from  Sir  Harry 
Vane!" 

When  all  had  departed,  and  Cromwell  had 
sent  the  men  away,  he  locked  the  door  of  the 
chamber,  and  put  the  key  in  his  pocket.  He 
next  proceeded  to  disperse  the  Council  of 
State,  and  so  was  left  as  Captain-General  of 
the  forces,  solely  responsible  for  the  order  of 
the  realm.  He  had  committed  violence 
against  the  Rump  Parliament,  as  it  was  called ; 
but  he  had  prevented  them  from  a  far  greater 


78  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

act  of  violence,  that  of  disfranchising  half  of 
England.  And  the  country  at  large  accepted 
and  applauded  his  act.  l(  We  did  not  hear  a 
dog  bark  at  their  going,"  he  said  afterwards. 
The  power,  thus  left  in  Cromwell's  hands,  was 
used  wisely  and  well,  without  a  trace  of  the 
military  despot  or  self-created  dictator.  A 
new  Council  of  State  was  appointed,  with 
Cromwell  at  its  head,  and  it  proceeded  to 
summon  a  new  Parliament.  A  constituent 
convention  was  called,  to  which  was  deputed 
the  task  of  settling  the  manner  of  calling  a 
new  Parliament,  which,  after  floundering  and 
drifting  about  in  the  shoals  and  quicksands 
of  debate  for  six  months,  died  of  exhaustion, 
and  yielded  up  into  the  hands  of  the  Lord 
General  the  powers  he  had  deputed  to  them 
at  their  coming  together.  The  Council  of  State 
and  of  Officers  then  proceeded  to  convene 
a  Parliament  on  a  reform  basis  of  repre- 
sentation. They  meanwhile  drew  up  a  con- 
stitution for  government,  and  named  Crom- 
well Protector  of  the  Commonwealth,  which 
office  he  accepted  only  on  the  ground  that  it 
limited  his  powers  and  made  him  responsible 
to  the  Council,  and  so  took  away  the  re- 
sponsible dictatorship  which  attached  to  his 
position  of  Lord  General  of  the  Army.  This 
provision  was  generally  acceptable  to  the 


ENGLAND WYCLIF  TO   CROMWELL.  79 

English  people,  and  the  Parliament  which  met 
confirmed  it.  But  Cromwell,  not  satisfied 
with  the  proceedings  of  the  Parliament,  dis- 
solved it,  and  proceeded  to  govern  with  the 
Council  of  State.  In  order  to  do  this,  he  had 
to  resort  to  high-handed  measures,  which 
brought  him  into  open  conflict  with  ancient 
laws,  and  not  seldom  with  the  will  of  the 
people.  He  resumed,  deliberately,  a  dictator- 
ship which  he  had  previously  voluntarily  re- 
signed, and  resolutely  declined.  That  he  did 
so  for  sufficient  reasons,  we  cannot  doubt. 
He  probably  saw  that  Parliament  was  unable 
to  cope  with  the  situation.  Their  discordant 
councils  and  dilatory  methods  were  calculated 
to  keep  the  country  in  turmoil,  and  embroil  it 
in  new  difficulties.  The  manner  in  which  he 
used  his  power,  and  the  evils  which  befell  the 
nation,  when  his  strong  hand  no  longer  held 
the  helm,  must  be  his  justification.  He  as- 
sumed the  reins  of  government  when  England 
was  at  her  lowest  ebb  as  a  nation,  rent  by  in- 
ternal factions  and  beset  by  foreign  foes;  the 
government  disorganized  and  disbanded,  the 
army  unpaid  and  mutinous.  He  created  a 
government  de  novo,  assumed  the  responsibil- 
ity for  the  administration,  united  and  har- 
monized the  three  kingdoms,  suppressed 
insurrection  and  revolt,  stamped  out  incendi- 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

arism,  and  made  favorable  treaties  with  for- 
eign powers ;  all  in  the  course  of  a  few  months. 
He  pacified  the  State,  so  that  the  ravages  of 
war  were  soon  forgotten.  Prosperity  set  in  in 
full  force.  Reforms  were  everywhere  insti- 
tuted, order  restored  throughout  the  king- 
dom, the  laws  respected  and  obeyed.  The 
civil  courts  were  reformed  and  reorganized 
on  a  basis  of  religious  toleration  and  an  edu- 
cated and  Godly  ministry.  In  a  word,  the 
land  had  rest,  and  prospered  as  it  had  never 
done  before. 

Cromwell's  foreign  policy  equalled  the 
vigor  and  enterprise  of  his  home  office.  He 
aimed  at  nothing  short  of  placing  England  at 
the  head  of  a  great  Protestant  alliance.  To 
this  end,  he  concluded  treaties  with  Holland, 
Sweden  and  Denmark.  When  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  ruthlessly  massacred  his  Protestant 
subjects  in  the  Valleys  of  Piedmont,  he  sent 
his  army  with  stern  demands  of  redress,  and 
the  promise  of  instant  war  if  the  demands 
were  not  met.  Ten  thousand  men  stood  ready 
to  descend  from  the  Swiss  Alps  upon  the 
north  of  Italy  at  the  signal  from  the  Lord 
Protector  of  England.  He  was  able  to  pro- 
tect a  Protestant  or  a  subject  of  England  in 
any  part  of  Europe  as  well  as  at  home,  for 
his  power  was  feared  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL. 


8l 


Black  Sea,  and  from  the  Arctic  to  the  Med- 
iterranean. Never  had  England  been  so 
firmly  or  so  finely  governed,  and  never  did  a 
king  use  his  power  and  state  with  more  wis- 
dom and  grandeur  than  did  Cromwell.  A 
second  Parliament,  called  in  1657,  pressed 
upon  him  the  title  of  king,  after  it  had  con- 
irmed  and  commended  his  rule;  but  that  he 
steadily  declined.  They  empowered  him, 
however,  to  name  his  successor,  and  when, 
three  years  later,  he  died,  worn  out  with  la- 
bors and  disease,  so  great  was  his  power  still 
that  a  reported  nomination  which  lacked  con- 
firmation was  sufficient  to  set  his  son,  Rich- 
ard, firmly  and  indisputably  in  his  seat,  and 
would  have  maintained  him  there  if  there  had 
been  anything  in  him  to  maintain.  But  Rich- 
ard, being  what  his  father  would  have  called 
a  man  of  straw,  practically  left  the  office  va- 
cant ;  and,  there  being  no  head  to  the  govern- 
ment or  the  army,  it  fell,  without  a  struggle, 
into  the  hands  of  the  Royalists,  and  Charles 
II.  returned  to  England  without  a  blow  and 
occupied  the  palaces  and  the  thrones  of  his 
ancestors,  remarking  as  he  did  so,  with  char- 
acteristic wit,  that  it  was  his  own  fault  he  had 
not  done  so  long  before,  since  everybody  he 
saw  assured  him  that  they  had  always  wished 
him  there. 


82  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

Cromwell  was  a  born  ruler  of  men,  and  pos- 
sessed all  the  strange,  mysterious  powers  by 
means  of  which  one  man  is  able  to  mould  a 
nation  into  conformity  and  likeness  with  him- 
self. He  was  a  man  of  mighty  spirit,  capa- 
cious understanding,  indomitable  will,  and 
absolute  fearlessness.  He  had  an  intense  na- 
ture, quick,  urgent,  powerful,  undeniable  im- 
pulses, a  large  resolute  purpose,  and  a  strong, 
indefatigable  body. 

The  wisdom,  power  and  grandeur  of  Crom- 
well's rule,  together  with  its  justice,  mag- 
nanimity and  beneficence,  is  its  own  best 
justification.  He  was  the  most  absolute 
and  despotic  ruler  England  ever  had;  but 
England  never  enjoyed  greater  liberty  than 
under  his  reign.  He  called  the  learned  and 
enlightened  John  Milton  to  be  his  secre- 
tary. He  stoutly  maintained  religious  liberty, 
equality  of  justice,  the  incorruptibleness  of  the 
courts,  the  personal  freedom  and  security  of 
every  citizen.  Peace,  prosperity  and  happi- 
ness reigned  in  England  as  it  had  not  done 
even  under  Elizabeth.  While  there  was  some 
opposition,  the  great  mass  of  the  people  sup- 
ported him  joyfully.  Abroad,  his  name  was 
dreaded.  He  set  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Protestant  interests  in  Europe,  protected  his 
brethren  from  persecution  and  adopted  con- 


ENGLAND — WYCLIF   TO   CROMWELL.  83 

dilatory  measures.  His  ships,  under  the 
command  of  his  friend,  Blake,  swept  the  Med- 
iterranean free  of  pirates  and  bombarded 
Algiers,  their  stronghold.  He  secured  the 
island  of  Jamaica  in  the  West  Indies,  and  that 
gave  him  a  base  of  naval  operations  against 
Spain  in  America;  and  when  he  died,  the 
weak  and  contemptible  son  who  succeeded  to 
his  office  without  opposition,  might  have  held 
it  in  his  father's  name  if  he  had  had  a  tithe 
of  his  father's  worthiness. 


LECTURE    III. 

THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY    IN    GER- 
MANY— LUTHER,    THE    HERO   OF   THE 
REFORMATION. 

On  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  about  half- 
way between  the  cities  of  Maintz  and  Heidel- 
berg, is  the  little  city  of  Worms.  It  has  no 
present  political  or  commercial  interest  for 
the  world;  but  its  historic  importance  is  of 
the  first  order,  for  here  was  enacted  one  of 
the  great  events  of  the  world,  which  "lifted 
empires  off  their  hinges  and  turned  the  chan- 
nels of  history  from  their  courses." 

A  massive  and  magnificent  monument  ex- 
plains that  event,  and  stands  near  the  spot 
where  it  took  place.  On  a  broad,  central  plat- 
form, each  on  its  own  pedestal,  in  heroic  size, 
sit  the  figures  of  Wyclif,  Huss,  Savonarola 
and  Peter  Waldo,  the  forerunners  of  Refor- 
mation. Above  them  are  Frederick  the  Wise, 
Phillip  the  Generous,  Melancthon  the  Scholar, 
and  Reuchlin  the  Humanist.  Below  them  are 
the  allegorical  figures  of  the  cities  of  Mar- 
burg, Augsburg  and  Speyer.  There  are  also 


GERMANY — LUTHER.  85 

medallion  portraits  of  Luther's  contempo- 
raries who  contributed  to  the  Reformation, 
and  the  arms  of  the  twenty-four  towns  that 
first  received  it.  Towering  above  all,  on  the 
central  pedestal,  is  the  heroic  figure  of  Lu- 
ther himself,  an  open  Bible  in  his  left  hand, 
with  his  right  laid  emphatically  upon  it,  while 
courage  and  faith,  the  two  qualities  for  which 
he  was  most  remarkable,  are  admirably  de- 
picted upon  his  face. 

Massive  and  grand  as  this  monument  is  in 
itself,  its  chief  interest  for  the  American 
Protestant  is  in  the  event  which  made  it  ap- 
propriate to  this  spot,  and  the  four  centuries 
of  history  which  it  summarizes. 

On  the  1 7th  day  of  May,  1521,  if  you  had 
been  in  Worms^  as  was  all  Germany  that 
could  get  there,  and  much  of  Europe  besides, 
you  might  have  witnessed  the  grandest  spec- 
tacle of  history  (save  only  that  which  took 
place  in  Pilate's  hall  fifteen  hundred  years 
before  and  which  made  this  one  inevitable) 
and  the  most  important  event  for  the  world 
since  that  day. 

The  Diet  or  assemblage  of  the  empire  was 
in  session.  It  was  composed  of  the  digni- 
taries and  notables,  lay  and  ecclesiastic,  of 
Christendom.  This  particular  assemblage  was 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  that  had  ever 


86 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


been  held.  It  was  called  for  a  particular  pur- 
pose, then  of  the  most  vital  interest  to  Eu- 
rope— the  condemnation  of  heresy  and  the 
burning  of  heretics,  at  that  time  quite  numer- 
ous and  bold  in  Germany,  of  whom  one  Mar- 
tin Luther,  an  Augustinian  monk,  was  the 
chief  offender.  There  was  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.,  the  practical  owner  of  all  Europe 
and  America,  to  whom  Germany  was  but  a 
small  province,  and  on  his  right  his  brother, 
Archduke  Ferdinand.  They  were  surrounded 
by  a  brilliant  retinue  of  kings,  princes  and  no- 
bles from  all  parts  of  Europe,  and  the  most 
famous  and  powerful  of  the  ecclesiastical 
princes — the  Pope  himself  being  represented 
by  special  envoys.  Luther's  own  sovereign, 
Frederick  the  Wise,  was  there,  and  in  all 
about  five  thousand  persons,  of  high  degree 
and  of  every  rank,  representatives  of  sover- 
eigns and  delegates  of  imperial  cities,  were 
gathered  in  and  about  the  hall.  About  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  you  might  have  seen, 
being  led  through  back  streets  and  by  a  cir- 
cuitous route,  so  as  to  avoid  the  press  and  be 
able  to  reach  the  hall,  a  tall,  spare  man,  in  a 
monk's  habit  of  the  Dominican  order.  Now, 
the  out-of-the-way  streets  through  which  he 
passes  unexpectedly  are  lined  with  silent  spec- 
tators and  crowded  with  people.  At  last  he 


GERMANY — LUTHER.  87 

reaches  the  hall  and  stands  uncovered  in  the 
presence  of  the  brilliant  throng,  at  the  call  of 
the  herald,  to  answer  the  charge  of  heresy  and 
disloyalty  to  the  Church  of  Rome. 

He  is  a  plain  and  humble  man,  about  thirty- 
eight  years  of  age,  and,  as  can  be  seen  by  his 
demeanor,  not  accustomed  to  such  an  assem- 
blage. He  is  dazed  and  bewildered  by  the 
experience  he  has  just  passed  through  and 
the  spectacle  that  now  surrounds  him.  He 
carries  himself  with  dignity  and  self-restraint, 
but  he  asks  for  time.  He  is  not  prepared  to 
answer  the  unexpected  charges,  nor  to  com- 
ply with  the  extraordinary  request.  There  is 
a  soldier-like  bearing  and  a  sense  of  sup- 
pressed energy  in  his  frame,  and  a  strange, 
unusual  light  in  his  eyes  as  he  addresses  the 
assemblage — a  light  which  one  of  the  papal 
emissaries  had  once  seen  there  in  the  cloister 
at  Erfurt  and  warned  the  prior  to  have  a  care 
for  that  monk,  for  he  was  bound  to  make 
trouble. 

The  same  scene  was  repeated  at  the  same 
hour  on  the  following  day,  but  with  a  far 
different  ending.  A  complete  set  of  Luther's 
writings  was  piled  upon  the  table  before  him, 
and  he  was  asked  to  recant  them  each  sep- 
arately and  by  name.  He  rose  to  address  the 
council. 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

He  speaks  in  German  and  in  Latin.  His 
voice  is  strong  and  manly,  and  rings  in  every 
part  of  the  great  hall.  His  speech  is  rapid, 
but  clear  and  distinct.  He  quotes  from  the 
Fathers,  the  Scriptures  and  the  records  of 
councils,  and  shows  himself  a  master  in  the 
subtleties  of  theology  and  philosophy.  He 
divides  his  works  into  three  classes:  (i)  Those 
upon  faith  and  morals,  based  upon  the  Scrip- 
tures. These  he  could  not  retract.  (2)  Those 
upon  the  Papacy  and  its  doings,  which  he 
said  had  ruined  Christendom,  body  and  soul. 
These  he  must  not  retract.  (3)  Those  which 
he  had  written  against  certain  opponents  of 
his.  These  he  would  not  retract.  But  in  all 
he  stood  ready,  if  any  one  would  prove  his 
error  from  Scripture,  to  retract. 

The  papal  delegate,  unable  to  endure  longer 
the  boldness  of  the  monk,  rose  and  declared 
they  were  not  there  to  hear  matters  discussed 
that  had  already  been  settled,  and  demanded 
that  he  give  them  a  plain  answer — "  Yes  or 
no!  without  any  horns.  Do  you  recant?" 
"  Well,  then/'  replied  the  imperturbable 
monk,  "  if  your  Imperial  Majesty  and  your 
Graces  require  a  plain  answer,  I  will  give  you 
one  without  either  horns  or  teeth.  It  is  this : 
I  must  be  convinced,  either  by  the  witness  of 
Scripture  or  by  clear  argument,  for  I  do  not 


GERMANY — LUTHER. 


89 


trust  either  Pope  or  councils  by  themselves, 
since  it  is  manifest  that  they  have  often  erred 
and  contradicted  themselves." 

The  brilliant  assemblage  was  dazed  and  con- 
founded by  such  language,  for  they  had 
never  heard  it  in  that  wise  before;  and  the 
Emperor  gave  the  signal  to  end  the  matter. 
Luther,  supposing  that  his  own  end  had  come 
when  he  saw  the  signal,  exclaimed :  "  Here 
stand  I.  I  can  do  naught  else.  God  help  me. 
Amen." 

The  Emperor  sat  silent  and  abashed  upon 
his  throne.  The  papal  envoys  fumed  with 
rage,  but  were  silent  and  baffled.  The  hearts 
of  the  great  assemblage  were  thrilled,  and  they 
were  awed  into  silence ;  a  great  hush  fell  upon 
them,  like  the  stillness  of  death.  Hundreds 
of  eyes,  unused  to  tears,  were  moistened,  and 
hundreds  of  young  hearts,  not  accustomed 
to  serious  emotions,  leaped  with  a  bound  of 
joy,  withal  with  sympathy  and  purpose  of 
protection  for  the  simple,  honest,  fearless, 
godly  monk. 

Luther  walked  out  of  that  assemblage  free 
from  danger.  He  seemed  to  live  something 
like  what,  in  superstitious  days,  was  known 
as  a  charmed  life.  Though  a  price  was  set 
upon  his  head,  and  armed  assassins  went 
about  in  bands  to  take  him,  and  the  papal 


90  STRUC 

representative  in  every  city  was  charged  to 
apprehend  him,  and  the  force  of  the  empire 
itself  was  enlisted  to  compass  and  secure  his 
death,  yet  he  walked  openly  among  men  and 
did  his  work,  preaching  where  he  would,  for 
twenty-five  years,  and  died  a  natural  death  at 
last  at  Eisleben,  the  place  of  his  birth. 

The  thrill  that  ran  through  the  assembly 
at  these  words  passed  over  Germany  like  the 
shock  of  an  earthquake,  and  divided  the  na- 
tion into  two  religious  factions.  Two-thirds 
of  the  Pope's  spiritual  children  were  lost  to 
him  in  that  hour,  and  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  has  not  been  able  to  recover  from 
that  shock.  A  new  epoch  in  the  world's  his- 
tory then  began. 

Let  us  consider  now  some  of  the  events 
that  led  up  to  the  council  at  Worms.  In  the 
month  of  November,  1483,  or  just  about  420 
years  ago,  there  was  born  in  Eisleben,  of 
John  and  Margaret  Luther,  peasants,  a  son, 
who  was  shortly  after  baptized  by  the  parish 
priest  as  Martin  Luther.  He  was  baptized 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  Romish  Church. 
There  was  no  other  then  anywhere  in  Eu- 
rope. His  parents  were  poor,  God-fearing, 
pious  folk,  as  his  ancestors  were  known  to 
have  been  such  three  generations  back,  and, 
after  the  fashion  of  their  day,  they  were 


i 


GERMANY — LUTHER.  Ql 

strictly  religious,  according  to  the  faith  of  the 
Romish  Church.  They  reared  their  son  in  the 
same  faith,  with  a  rigor  and  remorselessness 
that  made  a  deep  impression  upon  his  youth 
and  somewhat  saddened  his  sensitive  spirit; 
but  he  was  of  a  robust  nature,  and  perhaps 
needed  to  be  kept  well  within  bounds.  His 
whole  career  shows  him  to  have  been  by  na- 
ture of  a  fiery,  fearless,  impetuous,  headlong 
temper,  kept  in  bounds  only  by  reason  of  the 
severe  and  unrelenting  training  and  discipline 
to  which  he  subjected  himself.  This  part  of 
the  work  his  parents  seem  to  have  begun  for 
him,  and  taught  him  how  to  do  for  himself. 
They  were  wise  as  well  as  severe  with  their 
son,  for  they  discerned  in  him  marks  of  prom- 
ise which  caused  them  to  destine  him  for  a 
university  education,  with  all  that  meant  of 
labor  and  self-denial  for  themselves.  His 
father  was  a  poor  miner,  and  it  required 
heroic  self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  them  all  to 
keep  the  oldest  son  at  school  and  send  him  to 
the  university.  But  that  is  what  they  did. 

He  was  brought  up  an  orthodox  Catholic, 
and  was  of  a  devout  disposition.  At  the  age 
of  fourteen  he  wanted  to  make  a  pilgrimage 
to  Rome,  as  a  means  of  expiating  his  sins ;  but 
his  father  had  destined  him  for  a  lawyer  or 
other  profession,  and  had  no  patience  what- 


92  STRUGGLE   FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

ever  with  Martin's  leaning  toward  a  religious 
life,  so  that  when  the  crisis  came,  as  it  did,  in 
1505,  it  resulted  in  a  complete  rupture  be- 
tween father  and  son. 

That  was  a  fateful  year  for  the  world.  Lu- 
ther was  a  devout  and  scrupulous  man.  He 
assumed  the  religious  life  for  the  purpose  of 
being  a  religious  man.  He  had  studied  law 
and  was  not  interested  in  it.  He  had  studied 
medicine,  and  took  no  interest  in  that.  He 
had  found  a  Bible  at  Erfurt,  and  had  become 
engrossed  in  that,  and  be  a  monk  he  would 
and  give  his  time  to  that.  Being  what  he  was, 
Luther  could  not  be  anything  by  halves.  Had 
he  stuck  by  the  Catholic  ecclesiasticism  of  his 
youth,  he  would  probably  have  risen  to  the 
highest  dignity  in  the  Church,  for  he  was,  of 
all  the  men  of  his  age,  and  it  was  a  great  age, 
a  born  leader  of  men.  He  had  a  commanding 
genius,  which  was  destined  either  to  lead  the 
world  in  its  chosen  paths,  or  to  dig  out  new 
channels  for  the  world's  life  to  flow  in. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  had  already  be- 
come a  marked  man,  and  was  called  to  a 
chair  of  the  University  of  Wittenberg  and  to 
the  pulpit  of  its  great  church.  He  became  at 
once  the  idol  of  the  students  who  thronged  his 
lectures,  and  of  the  populace,  who  crowded 
the  church  to  the  ghancel  rail  whenever  he 
preached. 


GERMANY — LUTHER.  93 

Now  that  wae  a  strange  age  and  one  fo- 
menting with  intellectual  and  physical  activ- 
ity, as  no  other  age  that  preceded  it  had  ever 
been;  and  it  was  also  characterized  by  eccle- 
siastical profligacy  beyond  any  other  age. 
You  will  recall  that  it  was  the  age  of  Erasmus 
and  Raphael  and  Michael  Angelo  and  Albert 
Diirer;  the  age  of  Columbus  and  Vasco  Da 
Gama.  It  was  a  period  of  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries. The  art  of  printing  by  movable 
types  had  just  been  established.  The  discov- 
ery of  gunpowder  had  revolutionized  the  art 
of  war  and,  by  making  every  peasant  equal 
to  a  knight,  had  overthrown  the  order  of 
knighthood.  The  discovery  of  new  continents 
in  a  new  hemisphere  and  the  invention  of  the 
magnetic  compass  had  opened  an  entirely  new 
field  for  human  activity  and  a  new  door  for 
human  liberty.  Copernicus  had  explored  the 
heavens  with  his  telescope  and  discovered  the 
true  order  of  the  universe.  Descartes  had 
added  to  the  liberty  and  richness  of  human 
thought.  The  crusades  had  opened  up  the 
eastern  world  to  exploration  and  commerce. 
Industries  had  greatly  increased  in  conse- 
quence and  commerce  extended  its  sphere. 
The  writings  of  ancient  sages,  long  buried  in 
ancient  eastern  monasteries,  had  been  un- 
earthed and  brought  into  use.  The  several 


94 


STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


nationalities  of  Europe  were  crystallizing  and 
taking  form.  France  and  Italy,  Spain  and 
England,  had  already  laid  the  foundations  for 
a  national  life. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  movement  in  so 
many  directions  for  the  betterment  of  man- 
kind and  the  permanent  improvement  of  the 
race,  one  institution  alone  remained  station- 
ary, untouched  by  the  flow  of  intellectual  and 
political  influences  of  quickening  and  awaken- 
ing all  about  her,  and  that  institution  was  the 
hierarchy  at  Rome.  The  new  life  was  felt  in 
all  her  monasteries  and  universities  through- 
out Europe,  and  its  impulse  and  direction  came 
from  them;  but  Rome,  the  Papacy,  was  un- 
touched. She  sat  secure  in  her  splendor  and 
wealth,  and  cared  not.  But  she  did  want  mon- 
ey ;  and  money  she  must  have,  for  St.  Peter's 
was  building  and  vast  improvements  were 
being  constantly  made  at  the  Vatican;  besides, 
Leo  X.  was  upon  the  papal  throne,  a  profligate 
and  spendthrift  of  the  most  prodigal  type.  In 
order  to  keep  up  a  steady  and  voluminous  flow 
of  coin  into  the  coffers  of  the  Vatican,  a  new 
and  ingenious  device  had  been  invented  by 
Pope  John  XXIL,  of  infamous  memory.  He 
had  originated  the  sale  of  indulgences  and  the 
system  of  taxation  for  every  sin.  This  system 
Innocent  VIII.  had  perfected  by  inventorying 


GERMANY — LUTHER. 


95 


every  sin  and  scheduling  it  with  a  fixed  price. 
Immunity  could  be  purchased  from  purgatory 
for  the  sins  of  sensuality  at  12  ducats,  of  sac- 
rilege at  9  ducats,  of  murder  at  7 ;  for  murder 
of  parents  or  kin,  4  ducats.  The  indulgence 
consisted  of  a  ticket,  on  which  was  printed 
the  figure  of  a  monk,  with  cross,  crown  of 
thorns  and  flaming  heart.  In  the  upper  right- 
hand  corner  there  was  a  nailed  hand  of  the 
Saviour;  in  the  lower  left  a  foot.  On  the 
front  were  the  words :  "  Pope  Leo  X. 
Prayer.  This  is  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
wounds  of  Christ.  As  often  as  one  kisses  it, 
he  has  seven  years  indulgence."  How  much 
he  would  have  had  to  pay  for  that  offense 
under  the  term  sacrilege  deponent  saith  not. 

These  tickets  were  deposited  with  various 
bankers  throughout  Europe,  and  in  the  less 
populated  regions  they  were  hawked  about 
in  carts,  like  cabbages,  by  monks  and  priests, 
and  sold  by  the  millions. 

Between  the  years  1500  and  1517,  five  ex- 
traordinary issues  of  indulgences  were  made, 
and  the  text  of  those  who  hawked  them  was, 
"  God  willeth  not  the  death  of  a  sinner,  but 
that  he  shall  pay  and  live."  They  hung  such 
notices  on  their  carts  as  this :  "  The  red  in- 
dulgence cross,  with  the  Pope's  arms  sus- 
pended on  it,  has  the  same  virtue  as  the  cross 


90  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

of  Christ.  The  dealer  in  pardons  saves  more 
souls  than  Peter." 

Thus  the  sacrilege  went  on  until  it  became 
madness.  The  people  of  Europe,  but  espe- 
cially of  Germany  at  that  time,  were  steeped 
in  ignorance,  in  superstition,  and  in  licentious- 
ness. Nevertheless,  they  had  hearts  and  con- 
sciousness, and  desired  the  favor  of  God  and 
the  hope  of  heaven,  and  they  knew  no  other 
way  to  get  them  than  to  buy  the  indulgences 
the  Church  offered  them.  The  Bible  had 
never  been  read  in  their  hearing,  nor  had  any 
religious  service  ever  been  performed  among 
them  in  a  tongue  that  they  understood.  They 
were  harangued  from  time  to  time  from  the 
pulpits  by  drunken  and  licentious  priests,  but 
always  in  the  interests  of  the  superstitions 
being  perpetrated  upon  them  for  the  sake  of 
gain,  and,  knowing  themselves  to  be  sinful, 
they  actually  believed  that  the  purchase  of 
these  indulgences  would  purchase  for  them 
the  pardon  for  which  they  longed.  Hence 
they  thronged  about  the  indulgence  carts 
whenever  they  appeared,  and  these  clumsy 
vehicles  fairly  groaned  under  the  weight  of 
gold  they  carried  to  the  strongholds  of  the 
Church. 

Among  these  sacrilegious  traffickers  there 
were  none  so  brazen  and  shameless  as  one 


GERMANY — LUTHER.  97 

Tetzel,  a  sub-commissioner  of  the  Archbishop 
Albert  of  Maintz,  within  whose  jurisdiction 
lay  the  city  of  Wittenberg,  where  at  that  time 
Luther  was  stationed.  Said  Archbishop  was 
not  deeply  trusted  in  money  matters  by  those 
who  knew  him  best,  nor  did  he  himself  trust 
his  emissaries  in  finance,  perhaps  from  a  kin- 
dred feeling.  At  any  rate,  it  was  stipulated 
that  the  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  indulgences 
in  his  diocese  should  be  equally  divided  be- 
tween himself  and  the  Pope,  and  that  its  safe- 
keeping and  division  should  rest  with  the 
agents  of  the  banking  house  of  Augsburg. 
Thus  escorted  and  equipped,  the  shameless 
Tetzel,  a  Dominican  monk,  went  his  rounds; 
but  no  sooner  had  he  got  well  started 
than  a  warning  voice  was  lifted  in  the  pulpit  at 
Wittenberg,  cautioning  the  people  against  the 
robbery  and  the  imposture  and  warning  them 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  infamous  busi- 
ness. At  the  same  time  the  preacher,  for  it 
was  Luther,  wrote  earnestly  to  the  Arch- 
bishop and  the  Pope,  begging  them  to  desist 
from  the  evil  and  to  call  off  their  emissaries. 
One  letter  followed  another,  entreating,  be- 
seeching, praying  in  the  name  of  God  and 
Christ,  that  the  evil  be  stopped;  but  all  to  no 
purpose. 

Tetzel  drew  near  to  Wittenberg,  and  Lu- 


98  STRUGGLE    FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

ther,  in  despair,  sat  down  and  wrote  out  his 
reasons  against  the  iniquity — ninety-five  in 
number — and  in  the  form  of  propositions,  and 
challenged  the  world  to  debate  them,  in  order 
to  free  his  own  conscience  and  gain  further 
light  upon  the  subject.  Early  on  the  morn- 
ing of  October  31,  1517,  the  sound  of  a  ham- 
mer was  heard  on  the  church  door  of  Witten- 
berg, as  Martin  Luther,  with  his  own  hand, 
nailed  the  document  containing  his  ninety-five 
propositions  against  the  sale  of  indulgences 
to  the  door  of  the  church,  waking  the  echoes 
within  and  resounding  deep  in  the  hearts  of 
multitudes  who  gathered  to  see  what  was  go- 
ing on. 

The  document  was  read,  and  its  contents 
began  to  spread  and  be  discussed.  When  at 
length  Tetzel  set  up  his  shop  at  Leipsic,  near 
Wittenberg,  he  found  a  cool  reception  for 
himself  and  no  market  for  his  indulgences. 
Great  indignation  was  aroused  among  the 
hierarchy.  Efforts  were  made  to  remonstrate 
with  Luther,  but  he  would  have  nothing  short 
of  a  cessation  of  the  abominable  traffic  and  a 
repudiation  of  what  he  termed  "  the  indul- 
gence preacher's  shameless  and  wanton 
words." 

Then  he  was  summoned  to  answer  for  his 
words  at  Augsburg.  Then  he  wrote  his  cele- 


GERMANY — LUTHER. 


99 


brated  letter,  "  An  Appeal  from  the  Pope 
badly  informed  to  the  Pope  well  informed." 

As  this  had  no  effect,  he  appealed  from  the 
Pope  to  a  council.  The  result  was  that  Mil- 
titz,  a  celebrated  diplomatist,  was  dispatched 
from  Rome  to  see  Luther  and  patch  up  the 
quarrel,  for  the  Pope,  the  elegant  voluptuary, 
Leo  X.,  considered  the  matter  to  be  nothing 
but,  as  he  said,  "  a  squabble  of  monks."  Mil- 
titz  addressed  himself  to  the  task  with  great 
skill,  disavowed  the  actions  of  the  vendors  of 
indulgences,  and  agreed  that  if  Luther  would 
say  nothing  more  about  the  matter,  the  ob- 
jectionable practice  should  be  stopped. 

There  were  two  clauses  in  the  agreement: 
i.  Both  parties  are  forbidden  to  preach  or 
write  on  the  subject,  or  to  take  any  further  ac- 
tion upon  it.  2.  The  exact  position  of  affairs  is 
to  be  communicated  to  the  Pope,  and  a  learned 
bishop  will  be  appointed  to  investigate  the 
points  at  issue  and  report.  That  was  a  flag 
of  truce,  you  see,  as  between  two  equal  pow- 
ers. 

Abroad,  Luther  was  a  power  that  had  to  be 
reckoned  with.  For  far  less  than  he  had  done 
Huss  had  been  burned.  Then  said  Luther, 
"  Let  them  convict  me  of  my  error,  and  I  will 
retract,  and  not  till  then."  But  the  papal  au- 
thorities having  secured,  as  they  thought,  Lu- 


100          STRUGGLE  FOR   RELIGIOUS 

ther's  silence,  proceeded  to  take  advantage  of 
it  by  opening  a  discussion  at  Leipsic  between 
Eck,  a  celebrated  scholar  and  debater,  and 
Carlstadt,  a  man  somewhat  infected  with  Lu- 
ther's views.  Luther  was  wise  enough  to  dis- 
cover the  ruse  at  once.  He  writes :  "  The 
wrong-headed  fellow  is  fuming  against  me 
and  my  writings,  but  he  challenges  some  one 
else  as  his  adversary  and  attacks  him.  But 
this  discussion  will  turn  out  badly  for  the  Ro- 
man claims  and  usages,  and  they  are  the  staffs 
upon  which  the  Church  is  leaning." 

He  at  once  made  his  way  to  Leipsic  and 
joined  in  the  discussion,  but  with  little  prac- 
tical result,  except  the  easy  overthrow  of  his 
antagonist  in  argument. 

In  despair  of  accomplishing  anything 
through  the  Church  or  its  authorities,  he 
turns  now  to  the  German  people.  He  tells 
the  princes  that  they  must  take  the  work  of 
reform  into  their  own  hands;  that  it  belongs 
to  them ;  and  that  God  will  hold  them  respon- 
sible for  it;  that  the  people  constitute  the 
Church  and  not  the  priests,  and  the  authority 
rests  with  them. 

He  attacked  the  Catholic  doctrines  of  tran- 
substantiation  and  asceticism  and  emphasized 
the  necessity  of  Christian  liberty. 

One  step  followed  another  in  quick  succes- 


GERMANY — LUTHER. 


101 


sion  at  this  period  of  Luther's  development. 
He  had  no  intention  whatever  of  breaking 
with  the  Church,  but  was  determined  upon  its 
reform,  and,  as  he  said,  he  "  would  sooner  die, 
be  burned,  be  banished,  be  anathematized," 
than  yield. 

With  all  his  greatness,  Luther  was  not  a 
prudent  man.  His  contempt  of  all  expedi- 
ents for  his  own  safety,  and  bold  daring  in  the 
face  of  danger,  constantly  exposed  him  and 
his  cause  to  the  plots  and  conspiracies  of  his 
unscrupulous  foes.  Had  there  not  been  a 
watchful  eye  always  on  him,  a  solicitous  and 
resourceful  mind  on  the  alert,  and  a  powerful 
arm  always  extended  over  him,  he  would 
doubtless  have  gone  the  way  of  Savonarola 
and  Huss,  as  Henry  VIII.  told  him  that  he 
would,  and  as  the  edict  of  the  Diet  of  Worms 
declared  that  he  should.  But  the  good  and 
wise  Frederick  took  care  of  the  monk,  and 
saw  to  it  that  no  harm  befell  him.  Knowing 
the  temper  of  the  man,  he  knew  better  than 
to  offer  him  an  asylum ;  but  when  his  enemies 
were  lying  in  wait  for  him  on  his  way  home 
from  Worms,  the  Elector  had  his  retainers  fall 
upon  him  in  the  road  and  carry  him  off  bodily 
to  his  strong  castle,  the  Wartburg,  where  he 
managed  to  hold  him  until  the  danger  was 
past.  The  loyalty  of  this  great  prince  to  the 


IO2 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


blunt  and  outspoken  monk,  in  spite  of  the 
reprimands  he  sometimes  administered  to 
him,  is  beautiful  and  touching. 

While  Luther  was  in  the  Wartburg  trou- 
bles arose  in  Wittenberg  among  his  follow- 
ers, the  more  intense  and  extreme  of  whom 
had  become  fanatical  and  were  making  them- 
selves ridiculous  by  their  extravagances. 
Luther  could  not  see  the  cause  so  near  his 
heart  jeopardized  or  disgraced  by  violence 
and  fanaticism — he  was  himself  an  ardent  en- 
thusiast— but  blind  fanaticism  was  abhorrent 
to  him,  and  he  saw  at  once  that  the  attempts 
of  the  fanatics  violently  to  sweep  away  the 
ancient  usages  and  customs  of  religion  would 
react  harmfully  upon  the  effort  at  reform,  so 
he  left  the  castle,  where  he  was  under  guard, 
and  returned  to  his  pulpit  to  set  things  right, 
and  he  risked  his  life  in  so  doing. 

The  Elector  warned  him  that  he  could  not 
protect  him  in  Wittenberg,  and  Luther  re- 
plied, "  Since  I  now  perceive  that  your  Elec- 
toral Grace  is  still  very  weak  in  the  faith,  I 
can  by  no  means  regard  your  Electoral  High- 
ness as  the  man  who  is  able  to  shield  or  to 
save  me."  And  so  he  assures  him  not  to  fear 
for  him,  for  that  he  goes  forth  under  a  far 
higher  protector  than  his  own,  and  that  he 
was  engaged  in  a  cause  not  to  be  aided  by  the 
sword. 


GERMANY LUTHER.  103 

The  incident  is  a  tribute  not  only  to  Lu- 
ther's simplicity  of  faith,  but  also  to  the  Elec- 
tor's greatness  and  loftiness  of  mind,  for  he 
never  relaxed  his  vigilance  for  Luther's  safety 
nor  resented,  in  the  slightest  degree,  what  to 
some  men  would  have  seemed  like  gross  in- 
gratitude and  unpardonable  rudeness.  Only 
two  truly  great  souls  could  have  so  under- 
stood each  other  as  to  have  maintained  a 
friendship  unbroken  on  such  a  basis  of  abso- 
lute frankness. 

Luther's  was  a  swift-moving,  relentlessly 
logical  and  fearlessly  bold  mind.  For  him  to 
arrive  at  a  conviction  was  to  act  upon  it;  to 
perceive  a  truth  was  to  declare  it.  So  rapid 
were  his  motions  and  so  daring  his  utterances 
that,  in  1520,  three  years  after  the  posting  of 
his  theses,  he  was  excommunicated  by  a  bull 
from  Rome. 

The  dauntless  courage  of  the  man,  and  the 
decision  of  his  character,  come  into  full  relief 
in  his  treatment  of  the  bull  of  excommunica- 
tion. When  it  arrived  in  Wittenberg,  he 
called  it  an  execrable  bull  of  Antichrist,  and, 
assembling  the  faculty  and  students  of  the 
university,  led  them  in  solemn  procession  to 
the  public  square,  where,  in  the  presence  of  a 
great  concourse  of  people,  he  solemnly 
burned  the  papal  bull.  A  more  daring  act 


104          STRUGGLE  FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

than  that  was  never  committed.  It  flung  de- 
fiance in  the  face  of  the  highest  dignitary  in 
Christendom,  and  challenged  him  to  do  his 
worst.  The  best  of  Leo  X.  was  bad,  and  his 
worst  could  not  be  exceeded.  He  immedi- 
ately entered  into  an  agreement  with  the  Em- 
peror, Charles  V.,  by  which  Luther  was  to 
be  laid  under  the  ban  of  the  empire.  That 
meant  that  a  price  was  upon  his  head,  and 
whoever  harbored  him  or  administered  to  him 
or  held  intercourse  with  him  was  subject  to 
the  penalty  of  death. 

The  Diet  of  Worms  was  again  assembled 
for  the  purpose  of  pronouncing  that  sentence. 
Luther's  friends  warned  him  that  he  ought 
not  to  go  there  when  the  Emperor  sent  for 
him,  and  especially  when  it  was  known  that 
his  works  had  been  condemned  to  be  burned 
before  he  arrived.  They  tried  to  prevent  him 
from  going  on,  but  he  boldly  declared,  "  I 
will  ride  in,  if  there  are  as  many  devils  in 
Worms  as  there  are  tiles  on  the  housetops." 
Just  as  he  had  declared,  when  they  tried  to 
prevent  him  from  going  to  Leipsic,  when 
duty  called  him  there,  and  it  was  shown  that 
the  Duke  was  hostile  to  him,  Luther  said,  "  I 
will  go  to  Leipsic,  though  it  rained  Duke 
Georges  nine  days." 

Although  paid  assassins  went  about  to  at- 


GERMANY — LUTHER.  105 

tack  him,  and  many  would  have  been  glad  to 
purchase  heaven  and  a  rich  reward  at  the 
same  time  by  his  death,  none  assaulted  him. 
His  very  daring,  the  boldness  and  dauntless- 
ness  of  his  bearing,  was  enough  to  overawe 
the  boldest  spirits  of  his  time,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  miserable  caitiffs  that  sought  his  death. 

In  the  early  days  at  Erfurt  the  papal  visitor 
had  warned  the  prior  to  be  careful  of  the 
monk  with  the  strange  light  in  his  eyes,  for 
he  was  sure  to  make  trouble,  and  when,  in 
1518,  Capitan,  the  papal  legate,  met  him,  he 
declared,  "  I  could  scarcely  look  the  man  in 
the  face,  such  a  diabolical  fire  darted  out  of 
his  eyes." 

Luther  was  never  conscious  of  danger  in 
his  great  work,  and  if  he  had  been,  he  would 
still  have  braved  it  in  the  spirit  with  which  he 
braved  the  Emperor's  wrath.  "  If  I  had  a 
thousand  heads,"  he  said,  "  they  should  all  be 
cut  off,  one  at  a  time,  before  I  would  recant." 
Nothing  but  that  kind  of  courage  could  have 
served  him  in  the  great  battle  of  freedom 
upon  which  he  was  now  launched.  A  timid 
man  or  a  compromiser,  a  time-server  or  a 
self-seeker,  a  man  whose  own  life  was  dear 
unto  him,  with  all  Luther's  genius,  could  not 
have  done  anything  by  way  of  reformation. 

It  was  long  the  case  of  one  man  against  the 


STRUGGLE  FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

world ;  only  the  lion-hearted  could  have  faced 
it.  Luther's  iron  will  and  absolutely  unre- 
lenting persistency  carried  the  day  against 
Pope  and  Emperor. 

Of  course,  Luther  was  not  alone  in  his 
great  work.  His  boldness  soon  encouraged 
and  inspired  others.  The  greatest  scholar  of 
the  time  was  Erasmus,  and  he  welcomed 
Luther's  work  at  the  beginning  as  though  it 
was  allied  with  his  own.  Certainly  he  did 
much  to  help  Luther  by  his  keen  satires 
against  the  prevailing  ecclesiastical  customs. 
Even  his  own  later  attacks  upon  the  Reformer, 
inspired  as  they  were  from  the  Vatican,  could 
not  undo  what  he  had  already  done.  But  Me- 
lancthon  was  Luther's  chief  helper.  A  pre- 
cocious scholar,  he  was  an  expert  in  Greek 
and  in  theology  at  twenty.  Luther  called  him 
"  the  little  Greek,"  and  said,  "  He  surpasses 
me  in  theology,  too."  Taking  his  manu- 
scripts, which  the  little  Greek's  modesty  had 
prevented  him  from  publishing,  the  great- 
hearted Luther  sent  them  to  the  press.  He 
was  the  originator  of  the  Protestant  exegesis 
of  the  Scriptures  and  of  Protestant  systematic 
theology.  He  was  indeed  a  greater  technical 
theologian  than  Luther  himself. 

Certain  general  conclusions  in  respect  to 
the  Struggle  for  Religious  Liberty  in  Ger- 
many may  be  here  in  order. 


GERMANY — LUTHER. 


107 


The  Reformation  movement  assumed  three 
aspects — it  was  political,  moral  and  theologi- 
cal. It  is  sometimes  said  that  in  England  it 
was  political ;  in  Italy,  so  far  as  it  went,  it  was 
moral,  and  in  Germany,  we  may  say  that  it 
was  theological.  But  these  terms  are  appli- 
cable only  as  characterizing  the  most  conspic- 
uous phase  of  the  movement  in  each  case. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  were  all  three  of 
them  present,  in  some  degree,  in  all.  The 
exigency  of  the  time  and  the  character  of  the 
men  in  control  of  affairs  determined  the  par- 
ticular direction  the  movement  was  to  take. 

Your  German  is  a  man  of  speculative  habit 
of  mind,  strongly  subjective  in  his  mental 
processes,  thorough  and  critical  in  his  in- 
quiries. To  him  the  truth  of  a  thing  is  of  the 
first  importance,  irrespective  of  its  bearings; 
and  the  logical  conclusions  of  truth,  as  far  as 
he  knows  it,  are  imperative  and  controlling. 
He  has  a  deathless  love  of  freedom,  an  un- 
quenchable thirst  for  righteousness,  and  the 
heroic  virtues  of  fortitude,  endurance  and 
fearlessness,  and  withal  a  sound  moral  nature 
and  great  sagacity.  To  this  German  charac- 
ter Luther's  method  was  perfectly  adapted. 

i.  Luther's  position  as  a  reformer  is  per- 
fectly clear  in  his  defense  before  the  Diet.  He 
there  made  his  appeal  from  the  Pope  and  the 


IO8  STRUGGLE   FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

Church  to  the  Scriptures  and  his  own  con- 
science. The  Scriptures  were  his  ultimate  au- 
thority in  religion,  and  his  conscience  bound 
him  to  these.  The  wonder  of  that  position, 
even  to  us,  arises  from  the  fact  that  at  this 
time  Luther  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  there 
was  no  other  Church  in  Europe.  He  had 
been  brought  up  in  the  Catholic  doctrine  that 
the  Church  and  the  Pope  were  infallible.  Lu- 
ther pinned  his  faith  to  no  human  helpers, 
however  great  and  powerful.  He  believed 
that  his  work  was  of  God,  and  if  it  was  not,  he 
wanted  it  to  come  to  naught ;  hence  he  never 
would  sanction  the  use  of  the  sword  in  the 
cause  of  the  Reformation. 

In  1529,  at  the  Diet  of  Spires,  the  Em- 
peror succeeded  in  dividing  the  German 
princes,  securing  a  decree  which  forbade  the 
spread  of  the  new  doctrine  in  those  states 
where  it  was  not  already  in  control,  but  which 
secured  liberty  to  the  Catholics  in  those  states 
where  the  new  doctrine  was  in  control.  That 
action  was  taken  in  violation  of  a  treaty  al- 
ready made  at  Spires  in  1526,  which  secured 
practical  religious  liberty  throughout  Ger- 
many. 

The  adherents  of  Luther  immediately 
raised  a  protest,  and  from  that  came  the  name 
Protestant.  Not  from  their  opposition  to 


GERMANY — LUTHER. 


I09 


Rome  itself,  but  from  their  indignant  protest 
against  the  duplicity  and  fraud  with  which 
Rome  carried  on  the  warfare  with  the  Lu- 
therans came  the  name  Protestants,  which  has 
ever  since  been  the  honorable  title  of  those 
who  think  with  Luther.  Nothing  but  his 
strenuous  opposition  at  that  time  prevented 
the  Protestant  princes  from  declaring  war 
against  the  Emperor. 

The  Emperor  was  deceived  by  the  Protes- 
tant moderation  at  that  time,  and  took  it  for 
weakness  or  cowardice,  and  at  the  Diet  of 
Augsburg,  in  1530,  he  gave  them  until  Octo- 
ber 31  of  the  following  year  in  which  to  re- 
turn to  the  Catholic  fold  or  be  annihilated. 
Then  they  saw  their  danger,  and  formed  the 
defensive  league  of  Smalcald,  which,  in  spite 
of  internal  dissensions  and  treason,  was  able 
to  hold  the  Emperor  in  check  and  secure  the 
Protestant  cause  from  damage  until  1555, 
when  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  conceded  entire 
religious  liberty  to  the  Protestants. 

Charles  V.,  foreseeing  the  issue  of  that  as- 
semblage, declined  to  take  any  part  in  it,  and 
shortly  after  abdicated,  because  of  his  chagrin 
over  the  disappointment  he  suffered  in  not 
being  able  to  crush  Protestantism.  He  was 
the  most  powerful  emperor  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  ever  had,  and,  after  Charlemagne,  the 


IGGLE   FOR 

ablest  of  all  the  emperors.  But  here  was  a 
power  against  which  he  was  powerless,  and 
after  a  vain  struggle  of  thirty-five  years,  he 
yielded  up  his  sword.  The  battle  for  religious 
liberty  in  Germany  had  been  fought  and  won 
against  the  allied  powers  of  the  world  by  the 
force  of  one  intrepid  spirit,  a  poor  miner's 
son,  unarmed,  and  with  nothing  but  a  Bible  in 
his  hand. 

It  seemed  that  all  Germany  would  become 
Protestant;  but  a  Judas  arose  within  their 
ranks  in  the  person  of  Maurice,  Duke  of  Sax- 
ony, who,  out  of  personal  pique  against  the 
Elector  of  Saxony,  went  over  to  the  Emperor, 
and  so  weakened  the  Protestant  forces.  Al- 
though he  afterwards  returned  to  the  Protes- 
tant ranks,  he  was  not  able,  even  by  a  victory 
over  the  Emperor,  to  remedy  the  disaster  his 
secession  had  caused.  Although  Charles  was 
compelled,  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  to  grant 
liberty  to  the  Protestants,  a  heavy  blow  had 
been  struck  at  the  Reformation,  for  at  Augs- 
burg it  was  also  stipulated  that  every  prelate 
who  became  a  Protestant  was  to  resign  his 
benefice.  That  practically  marked  the  limits 
of  Protestantism  geographically  in  Germany 
for  centuries. 

In  all  this  work,  which  took  two-thirds  of 
Germany  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Pope  in  a 


GERMANY LUTHER. 


Ill 


space  of  twenty-eight  years,  Luther  was  the 
moving  spirit  and  the  presiding  genius.  He 
not  only  dictated  the  policy  of  the  princes 
who  espoused  his  cause  in  their  relations  with 
the  empire,  and  directed  the  theological  de- 
bates at  the  Diets,  but  he  guided  his  follow- 
ers in  all  matters  pertaining  to  their  spiritual 
and  temporal  life.  The  formation  and  man- 
agement of  new  churches,  the  creation  of  new 
moral  standards  and  of  a  new  ideal  of  domes- 
tic life;  the  settlement  of  disputes  between 
neighbors ;  the  creation  of  a  system  of  general 
education  for  his  Germans ;  provision  for  their 
religious  instruction;  the  translation  of  the 
Bible;  the  writing  of  hymns,  commentaries 
and  pamphlets;  the  conduct  of  great  theo- 
logical debates,  and  the  preaching  of  sermons 
were  some  of  the  labors  with  which  he  occu- 
pied himself  during  those  twenty-eight  years 
—labors  so  prodigious  as  to  seem  beyond  the 
strength  of  any  one  man.  And  yet  he  accom- 
plished them  all  with  a  good-natured  ease  and 
jocose  indifference  to  labor  that  make  it  im- 
possible for  us  to  think  of  him  as  an  over- 
burdened man. 

The  power  of  the  Bible  as  a  fighting  weapon 
is  brilliantly  seen  in  the  execution  which  it 
wrought  in  Luther's  hands.  Its  effect  upon 
himself  we  have  already  seen,  in  that  it  set  him 


112  STRUGGLE  FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

in  opposition  to  the  established  order  and 
nerved  him  for  the  fight.  Its  effect  upon  the 
Germans,  for  whom  he  translated  it,  was 
equally  marvelous.  He  began  the  work  in  the 
Wartburg,  and  kept  it  up  with  incredible  care 
and  labor,  until  the  whole  Bible  was  trans- 
lated into  the  German. 

"  No  fine,  courtly  words,"  he  wrote  to  one 
of  his  helpers.  "  This  book  must  be  under- 
stood by  the  mother  in  the  house,  the  children 
in  the  street,  and  the  common  man  in  the  mar- 
ket." 

It  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  people 
were  soon  talking  about  that  book  upon  the 
streets  and  in  the  family  circle.  Apart  from 
its  religious  influence,  Luther's  Bible  gave  the 
Germans  what  they  never  had  had  before — a 
standard  for  their  language.  A  national 
tongue  began  to  frame  itself  upon  the  vital, 
sinewy,  idiomatic  language  of  the  Bible,  and 
to  supplant  the  local  dialects.  It  also  gave  rise 
to  a  German  literature.  It  furnished  mental 
stimulus  and  instruction  to  the  people.  It 
entered  into  the  life  of  the  people  with  an 
exciting,  reviving,  transforming  energy,  and 
became  a  part  of  their  national  heritage. 
A  demand  soon  arose  for  general  education, 
and  Luther  set  himself  at  work  to  devise 
a  system  of  general  popular  education,  the 


GERMANY — LUTHER.  113 

beneficial  effects  of  which  are  seen  at  this 
day. 

Luther  was  a  man  of  varied  gifts  and  pro- 
digious labors,  as  preacher,  teacher,  organ- 
izer, translator,  commentator  and  general  ad- 
ministrator. He  did  enough  work  in  each 
department  to  have  made  the  reputation  of  no 
ordinary  man. 

Aside  from  his  greatest  work,  and  that 
which  had  the  most  far-reaching  and  perma- 
nent result  of  all  that  he  did,  his  translation  of 
the  Bible,  he  did  many  other  things  which 
had  immediate  and  lasting  results.  In  a 
single  year  he  is  said  to  have  issued  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-three  publications.  Com- 
mentaries, pamphlets,  tracts  and  letters  flowed 
from  his  pen  like  water  from  a  faucet,  and,  be- 
sides, he  was  traveling  and  preaching,  plant- 
ing churches  and  guiding  them  in  their  early 
struggles.  He  was  constantly  in  controversy 
with  some  opponent  of  his  teachings,  and  al- 
ways embroiled  with  his  adversaries.  At 
councils  and  diets  and  conventions  he  did  yeo- 
man's service  for  the  great  cause,  and  he  was 
equally  accessible  to  princes  and  to  peasants, 
and  was  equally  desired  and  sought  after  by 
them  for  counsel. 

He  complains  at  one  time  that  he  is  wast- 
ing his  time  in  acting  as  justice  of  the  peace, 


114  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

and  has  just  been  reckoning  with  a  baker  for 
his  false  weights. 

Now  we  see  him  at  the  council  board  of 
kings,  discussing  treaties,  alliances  and  state 
policies ;  now  from  his  study  directing  the  dis- 
cussions of  the  diet  or  convention;  again, 
from  the  pulpit,  quieting  the  tumult  of  a 
people,  and  still  again,  taking  a  long  journey 
that  he  may  settle  a  family  dispute,  and  in 
that  beneficent  mission  he  died,  in  1546,  per- 
haps from  exposure. 

At  another  time  he  is  busy  translating 
yEsop's  fables  for  his  Germans,  and  again  it 
is  hymns  that  he  is  composing  for  use  in 
church  worship  or  in  the  family  circle,  and  in 
all  this  the  accuracy  and  painstaking  care  of 
his  work  is  as  remarkable  as  the  quantity  of  it. 

In  the  midst  of  his  own  family  circle,  with 
his  sensible  wife,  whom  he  playfully  called 
Doctress  Luther,  and  his  children,  he  was  the 
gentlest  of  husbands,  the  kindest  of  fathers, 
and  the  merriest  of  playfellows.  He  kept 
open  house  for  all  comers,  and  the  songs 
which  he  composed  for  his  children  to  sing, 
and  the  talk  that  sparkled  at  his  table,  made 
his  home  the  center  of  attraction  and  influ- 
ence. For  humor  and  wit  he  has  never  been 
excelled.  Goethe's  conversation,  as  reported 
by  Eckermann,  is  not  more  brilliant;  nor  is 


GERMANY — LUTHER.  115 

the  "  Autocrat  "  of  the  "  Breakfast  Table  " 
more  humorous  or  witty.  He  was  an  ac- 
complished musician,  and  so  with  the  children 
he  spent  his  time  of  relaxation  in  music, 
singing  and  frolic,  and  with  his  friends  in 
witty  talk.  "  Junker  George,"  as  he  humor- 
ously styles  himself,  in  his  doublet,  with  a 
sword  at  his  side,  writes  to  his  friend  Me- 
lancthon  directions  as  to  the  care  of  his  "  little 
body,"  and  such  letters  as  he  wrote  his  own 
son,  son  seldom  has  received  from  father. 
The  fine  mingling  of  jest  and  earnest  in  Lu- 
ther's letters  is  one  of  the  rarest  of  charms. 

He  puts  up  a  practical  joke  upon  a  fastidi- 
ous musical  critic  by  passing  off  a  composi- 
tion, partly  his  own,  as  a  performance  in 
Augsburg,  to  celebrate  the  entrance  of  the 
Emperor  and  his  brother. 

Martin  Luther  was  a  true  son  of  the  Ger- 
man people.  He  had,  besides  their  mental 
traits  and  moral  qualities,  their  peculiarities  of 
temper.  In  him  a  certain  childlikeness  of  dis- 
position was  accompanied  by  a  lion-hearted 
courage.  Great  cheerfulness  of  temper  was 
united  with  a  mystical  and  melancholy  vein. 
He  was  gentle  and  tender,  but  passionate  and 
defiant  on  occasion. 

The  career  of  Martin  Luther  was  the  won- 
derful career  of  a  great  soul.  His  boldness, 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

his  courage  and  his  daring  were  equalled  by 
his  gentleness,  his  tenderness  and  his  affec- 
tion, and  when  no  great  principle  was  at  stake, 
he  was  humble,  meek  and  conciliatory  alike 
to  friends  and  foes.  In  mental  processes,  he 
was  prompt  and  swift,  brilliant  and  practical, 
with  almost  unerring  judgment  and  sound 
common  sense,  but  his  intellectual  genius,  ex- 
traordinary as  it  was,  was  equalled  by  his 
moral  character  and  spiritual  grandeur.  In 
him  were  mingled  all  the  elements  of  man  in 
huge  proportions.  Indeed,  he  was  a  human 
colossus,  gifted  with  the  tongue  and  voice  of 
a  Jupiter  tonans,  and  above  all  he  was  a 
man  of  unlimited  and  invincible  faith.  He 
stands  out  upon  the  pages  of  history  as  in- 
comparably its  most  sublime  character  since 
Christ  and  Paul.  He  was  a  man  destined  to 
set  up  a  new  doctrine  and  reform  the  world, 
as  his  superior  said  of  him  long  before  there 
were  any  signs  of  its  coming.  He  had  a  voice 
of  thunder  and  a  pen  of  fire. 

And  in  all  this  he  was  a  true  son  of  his  own 
people,  a  German  of  the  Germans.  Of  inde- 
pendent spirit,  inquiring  mind,  loving  liberty 
and  truth,  they  had  kept  alive  the  spirit  of 
freedom  when  it  was  not  to  be  found  else- 
where. Of  a  critical,  speculative  habit  of 
mind,  they  were  also  logical  and  thorough  in 


GERMANY — LUTHER. 


117 


their  mental  processes.  With  a  tendency  to 
mysticism  and  ascetic  views  of  life,  they  have 
also  a  strong,  practical  faculty  and  great 
cheerfulness  of  temper.  There  is  childlike 
guilelessness  about  them,  together  with  a  de- 
fiant and  passionate  spirit  and  an  inflexible 
will.  They  are  sound  in  body,  in  mind  and  in 
spirit. 

Such  a  man  among  such  a  people  was 
bound  to  move  the  world.  Germany  is  the 
most  prosperous  and  enlightened  country  on 
the  Continent  to-day,  because  of  Luther's 
work. 


LECTURE    IV. 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  IN  ITALY — 
SAVONAROLA. 

The  course  of  thought  which  we  are  pur- 
suing in  these  lectures  brings  us  to-night  to 
consider  the  Reformation  in  Italy.  In  no 
other  country,  except  Spain,  did  it  have  so 
little  effect  or  produce  such  transient  results. 
Our  attention  would  scarcely  be  attracted  in 
that  direction  in  pursuing  the  subject  of  re- 
ligious liberty  were  it  not  for  the  life  and  work 
of  a  single  person,  who  stands  conspicuous 
among  the  reformers  of  the  world  for  the  sin- 
gular beauty  of  his  character,  the  remarkable 
powers  of  his  genius,  and  the  startling  effects 
of  his  eloquence — Fra  Girolamo  Savonarola, 
a  Dominican  monk,  Prior  of  San  Marco  in 
Florence,  who  lived  between  the  years  1452- 

98. 

Apart  from  this  remarkable  man,  whose 
name  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  pronounce  even 
at  this  late  day  without  a  feeling  of  wonder 
and  of  awe,  the  only  marked  effect  of  the  Ref- 
ormation movement  in  Italy  was  the  develop- 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA. 


119 


ment  of  the  most  effective  forces  that  were  set 
at  work  against  it.  These  were  the  Inquisi- 
tion and  the  Order  of  Jesuits,  or  Society  of 
Jesus,  founded  by  Ignatius  Loyola,  a  Spaniard, 
for  the  sake  of  extending  the  power  and  au- 
thority of  Rome.  That  society  espoused  the 
doctrine  that  the  end  justifies  the  means,  and 
by  their  casuistry  so  confused  the  distinction 
between  right  and  wrong  that  in  their  hands 
a  question  of  morals  became  a  question  of  ex- 
pediency. Such  was  the  effect  of  their  im- 
moral philosophy  upon  their  characters,  that 
they  adopted  courses  of  conduct  offensive  to 
the  moral  sense  of  Christendom.  They  be- 
came obnoxious  even  to  the  Church  to  which 
they  had  rendered  most  signal  service,  and 
in  whose  defense  they  were  organized.  The 
order  was  suppressed  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, but  it  has  since  been  revived. 

Let  us  look  a  little  into  the  condition  of  re- 
ligious affairs  in  Italy  previous  to  the  appear- 
ance of  Savonarola. 

The  downfall  of  the  Hohenstaufens  in  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  liberated 
Italy  from  the  control  of  the  German  emper- 
ors. The  cities  regained  their  independence 
and  prosperity,  letters  were  cultivated,  the  arts 
flourished,  commerce  rapidly  increased,  trade 
expanded,  schools,  academies  and  univer- 


120 


STRUGGLE   FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


sities  sprang  up,  and  learning  was  eagerly 
sought,  so  that  when,  in  1453,  the  Turks  took 
Constantinople,  Italy  furnised  the  most  in- 
viting and  profitable  field  for  the  scholars 
and  artists  who  had  inherited  and  treasured 
the  Greek  learning  and  art,  but  who  were 
forced  to  flee  before  the  barbarous  Turk. 

The  Greek  learning  and  literature,  as  well 
as  the  Greek  art  and  the  Greek  spirit,  had 
long  before  perished  in  Europe.  The  division 
of  the  East  and  the  West  had  left  Constantino- 
ple the  undisputed  queen  of  the  East  and  the 
great  treasury  of  Greek  antiquities.  With  the 
fall  of  the  Empire,  and  the  invasion  of  the 
barbarians,  culture,  learning  and  art  had 
largely  disappeared  from  Europe.  What  re- 
mained was  cherished  in  secret  or  hidden  away 
in  the  cloister  of  some  secluded  convent, 
where  the  art  of  using  it  was  lost. 

In  Italy,  freedom  from  foreign  oppression 
left  her  people  free  to  develop  their  native 
talents.  Era  Angelico  began  to  paint ;  poetry 
revived  with  Dante;  science  began  to  be  culti- 
vated. 

Guizot  tells  us  that  at  this  time  Italy  "  gave 
herself  up  to  all  the  pleasures  of  an  indolent, 
elegant,  licentious  civilization;  to  a  taste  for 
letters,  the  arts  and  social  and  physical  en- 
joyments." He  goes  on  to  compare  Italy 


121 

of  that  day  with  France  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, just  before  the  revolution,  and  says: 
'  There  was  the  same  desire  for  the  progress 
of  intelligence,  and  for  the  acquirement  of 
new  ideas ;  the  same  taste  for  an  agreeable  and 
easy  life,  the  same  luxury,  the  same  licen- 
tiousness; there  was  the  same  want  of  politi- 
cal energy  and  of  moral  principles,  combined 
with  singular  sincerity  and  activity  of  mind." 

It  was  during  that  time  that  Machiavelli 
wrote  his  famous  treatise  known  as  the 
"  Prince  " — a  work  which  gave  its  author's 
name  to  the  world  as  a  new  word  representa- 
tive of  the  most  flagitious  immorality  openly 
avowed  and  even  advocated.  In  that  notori- 
ous work  he  laid  down  the  principle  afterward 
assumed  as  the  keystone  of  the  Jesuit's  arch 
of  casuistry, that  "the  end  justifies  the  means," 
that  treachery  and  dissimulation  are  a  merit 
when  skillfuly  practiced.  It  set  at  defiance 
all  the  principles  of  Christian  ethics,  and  ad- 
vocated actions  so  flagrant  and  degrading  as 
to  be  unworthy  the  name  even  of  pagan ;  and 
yet  he  was  the  friend  and  favorite  of  two 
popes  and  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici. 

The  fatal  defect  of  character  which  under- 
mined the  pagan  civilizations  of  the  past  had 
come,  with  their  philosophy  and  moral  and 
religious  teachings,  into  Italy,  as  it  afterwards 


122 

showed  itself  in  France,  and  was  the  certain 
precursor,  as  it  was  also  the  fatal  cause,  of  her 
disintegration,  decay  and  long-time  bondage. 

Dante,  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio  had  seen 
and  warned  Italy  of  her  danger.  Dante  had 
faithfully  withstood  the  childish  pretensions 
and  unseemly  luxury  of  the  papacy,  and  had 
suffered  exile  and  persecution  in  consequence. 
He  bewailed  the  corruption  of  the  papal  court 
and  the  assumptions  of  temporal  power  by  the 
popes.  In  his  work  on  Monarchy,  he  advo- 
cated the  separation  of  the  Church  and  the 
State,  and  the  Ghibelline  doctrine  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  each.  To  its  greed  of  temporal 
power,  Dante  refers  the  evils  and  abuses 
which  have  arisen  within  the  Church. 

The  protests  of  the  poets  and  prose  writers 
were  illustrated  and  emphasized  for  the  com- 
mon people  by  the  painters.  Fra  Angelico 
and  Fra  Bartolommeo,  in  their  paintings  of 
the  judgment,  place  popes,  cardinals  and 
bishops,  in  full  canonicals,  in  the  lowest  re- 
gions of  eternal  torment,  or  on  their  way 
thither,  in  the  midst  of  the  vilest  sinners  and 
among  the  meanest  of  mankind.  Michael  An- 
gelo,  also,  in  his  painting  of  the  judgment  in 
the  Sistine  Chapel,  the  principal  place  of  wor- 
ship in  the  Vatican  itself,  did  not  hesitate  to 
pillory  the  highest  of  ecclesiastical  dignitaries 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  123 

in  the  midst  of  the  worst  torments  and  in  such 
living  likeness  that  they  recognized  their 
own  faces.  It  is  said  of  one  of  them  that 
he  complained  to  the  pope  that  the  great 
masters  had  placed  him  in  the  region  of 
eternal  torment,  and  the  pope  replied,  "  If 
he  had  placed  you  in  purgatory,  I  might 
be  able  to  do  something  for  you;  but  since 
he  has  placed  you  in  hell,  I  have  no  juris- 
diction there."  And  there  the  great  cardinal 
remains  to  this  day. 

The  ideal  works  of  the  great  masters  who 
now  appeared  in  Italy  had  much  to  do  with 
awakening  the  spiritual  natures  of  men  and 
quickening  the  moral  sense.  Such  beatific 
visions  as  Fra  Angelico  and  Raphael  threw 
upon  their  canvases,  and  such  mighty  reve- 
lations of  spiritual  genius  as  Leonardo  da 
Vinci  and  Michael  Angelo  gave  in  their  great 
works,  were  not  without  their  effect  on  a  peo- 
ple the  most  sensitive  and  responsive  in  Eu- 
rope to  the  effects  of  artistic  beauty.  The 
sweet  dignity  and  noble  grace  of  Raphael,  and 
the  colossal  power  of  the  Jove-like  Angelo, 
deeply  impressed  and  strongly  moved  the 
people. 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  revival  of  learn- 
ing in  Italy  was  to  awaken  an  inquiring  spirit 
and  create  a  critical  method.  Under  the  in- 


124  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

fluence  of  Dante,  Petrarch  and  Brescia,  a  cer- 
tain intellectual  awakening  had  already  taken 
place.  Men  had  been  shaken  out  of  their  long- 
time intellectual  lethargy;  but  the  activity 
which  it  created  was  mostly  in  the  direction  of 
poetry  and  romance.  Works  of  the  imagina- 
tion and  the  fancy  were  chiefly  the  result,  and 
it  was  not  until  the  Greek  scholars  of  Con- 
stantinople, with  their  invaluable  manuscripts, 
invaded  Italy  that  the  spirit  of  inquiry  and  of 
criticism  awoke.  History  and  science  began 
to  be  cultivated.  The  result  of  historical  in- 
vestigations was  to  undermine  the  credit  of 
the  great  ecclesiastical  system,  which  had 
based  its  stupendous  claims  upon  reputed  his- 
torical events.  Laurentius  Valla  exposed  the 
fiction  of  the  so-called  Donation  of  Constan- 
tine,  which  Dante  had  previously  said  Con- 
stantine  had  no  right  to  make.  Other  studies 
revealed  the  identity  beneath  Christian  names 
of  many  of  the  ecclesiastical  customs  and 
practices  with  the  ancient  superstitions  and 
paganisms,  which  the  Church  of  Rome  so 
fiercely  denounced  as  of  the  devil. 

The  study  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  Hebrew 
and  Greek  tongues,  which  now  became  pos- 
sible, familiarized  students  with  the  original 
sources  of  the  Christian  religion  and  revealed 
the  yawning  chasm  between  the  apostolic 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  125 

simplicity  of  the  Early  Church  and  the  gor- 
geous pomp  and  splendor  of  the  papacy. 

All  of  these  influences  combined  to  create 
a  spirit  of  unrest  and  discontent  among  the 
better  classes  of  Italians.  The  leading  men 
and  some  illustrious  women  began  to  assem- 
ble for  worship  and  prayer  in  the  simple  faith 
and  forms  of  the  New  Testament.  At  Ven- 
ice, Pisa,  Genoa,  Milan,  Modena,  Padua, 
Ferrara,  Florence,  Rome  and  Naples,  some 
among  the  princes  and  higher  ecclesiastics 
united  in  a  kind  of  evangelical  party.  At 
Rome,  fifty  or  sixty  such  persons,  among 
whom  were  four  or  five  who  afterwards  be- 
came cardinals,  and  one  of  them  a  pope,  Paul 
IV.,  formed  what  was  known  as  the  "  Oratory 
of  the  Divine  Love."  They  held  for  the  most 
part  to  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion, and  were  urgent  in  their  demands  for 
the  purification  of  the  Church.  They  gained 
many  converts  among  the  common  people 
and  the  middle  classes,  and,  on  one  occasion, 
addressed  a  memorial  to  the  pope,  in  which 
they  likened  the  state  of  the  Church  to  "  a 
pestiferous  malady,"  and  recommended  meas- 
ures of  reform. 

The  reigning  pope,  Paul  III.,  was  friendly 
to  the  evangelical  party  and  made  its  leaders 
cardinals.  It  is  probably  due  to  him  that  such 


126 


STRUGGLE   FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


slight  reforms  as  took  place  within  the  Italian 
Church  were  secured,  for  his  successor  re- 
scinded his  own  acts  as  a  leader  of  the  evan- 
gelical party,  and  was  as  strenuous  and  in- 
flexible as  Alexander  Borgia  himself  for  the 
ancient  regime. 

By  the  efforts  of  this  party  a  meeting  was 
had  between  the  representatives  of  the 
Protestant  reformers  in  the  North  and  the 
representatives  of  the  pope  at  Ratisbon,  in 
1541,  with  the  design  of  bringing  about  a 
better  understanding  between  the  Protestants 
and  the  Romanists  and  of  uniting  them  again 
in  one  church  organization.  They  were  able 
to  agree  on  the  nature  of  man,  original  sin, 
redemption  and  justification;  but  on  the  two 
points  of  the  primacy  of  the  pope  and  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Eucharist  they  could  not  agree, 
and  hence  the  union  could  not  be  made. 

That  conference  revealed,  as  perhaps  noth- 
ing else  during  the  Reformation  controversy 
did,  how  impassable  was  the  gulf  that 
yawned  between  the  Protestant  reforms  and 
the  Catholic  Church.  It  resulted  in  a  strong 
reaction  in  Italy  against  Protestantism  and  a 
revival  of  zeal  in  the  Italian  Church,  and  the 
development  of  the  two  forces  already  men- 
tioned— the  Jesuits  and  the  Inquisition — 
which  were  to  prove  in  its  hands  the  might- 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA. 


I27 


iest  agent  and  the  most  terrible  instrument 
for  the  check  of  Protestantism  and  the  re- 
establishment  of  Romanism  in  Europe. 

Two  things  are  essential  to  the  success  of 
any  great  cause :  one  is  a  person  large  enough 
to  embody  the  principles  of  the  cause,  power- 
ful enough  to  command  a  hearing  for  it,  in- 
stinct with  a  contagious  enthusiasm,  and  ir- 
resistible in  the  impact  of  his  own  personality 
upon  others,  a  kind  of  prophet  to  mankind. 
That  is  one  essential.  The  other  is  a  people 
prepared  to  receive  the  message  of  the 
prophet,  to  respond  to  his  call,  and  to  act 
upon  the  convictions  he  imparts  to  them. 
Given  the  prophet  without  the  people,  and 
you  have  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness; 
given  the  people  without  the  prophet,  and  you 
have  the  blind  groping  in  darkness  and  falling 
into  the  ditch. 

Italy  had  the  first,  but  not  the  second,  of 
these  two  requisites  in  the  struggle  for  re- 
ligious liberty  in  the  person  of  Savonarola,  a 
veritable  John  the  Baptist,  who  appeared  in 
Italy  in  the  fifteenth  century,  thirty  years 
before  Luther  appeared  in  Germany.  His 
was  the  spirit  of  a  true  Hebrew  prophet.  The 
clearness  of  his  vision,  the  singleness  of  his 
purpose,  the  intensity  and  fervor  of  his  na- 
ture; his  austere  morality  and  lofty  spiritual 


128 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIB! 


attainments  make  him  conspicuous  among 
the  great  and  the  good  of  mankind.  But  the 
people  to  whom  he  preached  were  not  pre- 
pared to  receive  his  message.  They  heard 
him  gladly  and  in  vast  throngs.  They  were 
swept  by  his  impassioned  eloquence,  as  a  for- 
est is  swayed  by  a  tempest,  and  bowed  and 
wept  at  his  appeals.  For  a  time  they  were 
even  compelled  to  go  with  him  and  obey  his 
voice  against  their  will,  so  persuasive  and 
overwhelming  was  his  personality.  They 
purged  their  vile  city  of  its  vices  and  its 
crimes,  its  traitors  and  its  despots,  so  that 
from  being  the  most  profligate  city  in  Italy 
Florence  became  a  model  of  virtue.  But  the 
haste  with  which  the  people  returned  to  their 
iniquities  when  his  voice  was  silenced  goes 
to  show  how  unprepared  they  were  for  the 
truth  which  he  proclaimed  and  how  shallow 
their  hearts  were  towards  it.  Had  Savon- 
arola wrought  in  England  or  in  Germany,  the 
results  of  his  work  would  probably  have  been 
different.  As  it  was,  he  was  a  voice  crying 
in  the  wilderness. 

The  peculiar  character  of  the  Italian  people 
is  responsible  for  the  failure  of  Savonarola's 
efforts.  A  stranger  is  liable  to  err  here  and 
should  be  careful  how  he  speaks ;  but,  judged 
from  their  history,  they  seem  to  be  a  versa- 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA. 

tile,  partisan  people,  esthetic  and  artistic, 
emotional  and  volatile,  fond  of  show  and 
pleasure,  richly  endowed  in  many  fine  senti- 
ments, but  lacking  in  the  finest  sensibilities 
and  somewhat  deficient  in  moral  sense — a 
certain  immaturity  of  mind  and  character. 
They  have  the  childish  virtues  of  quickness, 
buoyancy  and  hopefulness,  and  the  childish 
vices  of  fickleness,  capriciousness  and  wilful- 
ness.  They  love  the  forms  of  freedom  rather 
than  the  fact.  The  veriest  despot  might  ca- 
jole them  out  of  their  liberties  and  lull  them 
into  insensibility  of  their  slavery  by  a  display 
of  magnificence.  A  splendid  tyranny  wras  far 
more  welcome  to  them  than  a  quiet,  orderly 
and  prosperous  republic.  Their  best  friends 
might  not  seriously  offend  their  esthetic 
sense  or  trifle  with  their  love  of  pleasure. 
They  lack  the  critical  faculty  and  a  close, 
stern,  logical  power  which  is  indispensable  to 
mental  stability  and  integrity  and  civic  free- 
dom. 

For  this  reason  they  rejected  men  like 
Rienzi,  Dante,  Arnold  of  Brescia,  and  Savon- 
arola— pure  patriots  and  lovers  of  Italy,  and 
allied  themselves  with  men  like  the  Medici 
and  the  Borgia,  moral  monsters  and  political 
despots. 

During  the  long  struggle  between  the  Em- 


.IBERTY. 

pire  and  the  Papacy,  the  Guelphs  and  the  Ghi- 
bellines,  the  cities  of  Northern  Italy  had  man- 
aged, for  the  most  part,  to  maintain  their 
freedom,  so  that  when  the  Empire  fell,  in  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  a  period  of 
unexampled  prosperity  set  in,  and  the  chief 
cities  rose  to  great  magnificence.  For  a 
period  of  four  hundred  years  the  history  of 
Italian  cities,  of  which  Genoa,  Venice  and 
Florence  are  chief,  read  like  a  romance.  They 
are  comparable  only  with  the  three  ancient 
cities  of  Athens,  Rome  and  Carthage. 

But  the  heroic  virtues  and  unquenchable 
love  of  liberty  with  which  these  cities  fought 
their  early  battles  for  freedom  had  in  the 
fifteenth  century  given  place  to  a  supine  and 
craven  acquiescence  in  the  supremacy  which 
rich  and  powerful  citizens  had  acquired  in  the 
State. 

Of  these  cities,  Florence  is  to  us  the  most 
important.  The  events  that  transpired  within 
her  walls  during  two  centuries  have  made  her 
conspicuous  in  history,  as  they  made  her  the 
wonder  and  admiration  of  her  time.  The  men 
whom  she  produced,  both  for  good  and  for 
evil,  stand  among  the  greatest  in  history. 
Dante,  Savonarola,  Michael  Angelo,  to  say 
nothing  of  Raphael,  Giotto,  Ghiberti,  Bru- 
nelleschi  and  Galileo,  form  in  themselves  a 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  1 3 1 

brilliant  constellation.  But  Florence  also 
produced  men  of  a  very  different  type.  Under 
the  fostering  influence  of  her  free  institu- 
tions, the  humble  and  obscure  often  grew 
rich  and  powerful  by  diligence  and  intelligent 
enterprise,  and  not  seldom  they  used  their 
wealth  and  power  to  undermine  the  freedom 
which  had  enabled  them  to  acquire  it.  Among 
these  the  family  of  the  Medici  is  notorious 
for  the  manner  in  which  it  subverted  the  lib- 
erties of  Florence  and  usurped  the  supreme 
authority.  It  is  also  remarkable  for  the  num- 
ber of  brilliant  intellects  and  moral  monsters 
it  produced  in  the  course  of  three  centuries. 
Of  these,  Lorenzo  was,  perhaps,  in  both  re- 
spects, the  most  remarkable,  and  he  was  in 
control  of  Florence  when  Savonarola  arrived 
there  at  the  Convent  of  San  Marco,  in  1490. 
He  was  a  cultivated,  refined  scholar,  phi- 
losopher and  artist;  and  at  the  same  time  an 
abandoned  libertine  and  heartless  tyrant.  He 
was  a  man  of  versatile  gifts  and  great  accom- 
plishments, and  shone  with  equal  brilliancy  in 
an  assembly  of  philosophers  discussing  the 
Platonic  idea  of  virtue,  in  a  society  of  artists 
criticising  the  productions  of  genius  in  paint- 
ing and  sculpture,  in  a  company  of  poets  dis- 
puting about  literature  or  reading  their  own 
verses,  and  in  the  garden  of  San  Marco  dis- 


132 


STRUGGLE   FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


cussing  theology  and  religion.  He  was  sur- 
named  "  The  Magnificent,"  and  justly  so,  for 
no  man  was  ever  more  munificent  in  his  pat- 
ronage of  letters,  arts,  sciences  and  religion 
than  he.  In  his  own  library  was  trained  the 
youth  who  afterwards  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  great  Vatican  library,  now  one  of  the 
priceless  collections  of  the  world.  He  com- 
posed verses  to  be  sung  at  religious  services, 
and  others  to  be  sung  at  the  Carnival,  the 
most  abandoned  revel  of  drunken  orgies  im- 
aginable. He  was,  in  fact,  the  man  of  his 
age,  and  embodies  on  a  large  scale  its  virtues 
and  its  vices.  With  his  affable,  cultivated, 
polished  manner  and  peerless  magnificence, 
he  cajoled  the  people  and  narcotized  them 
into  a  state  of  civic  comatoseness,  so  that  he 
was  able  to  rob  them  of  the  few  rights  and 
liberties  his  grandfather  had  not  absorbed. 
He  maintained  the  forms  of  liberty  under 
which  the  city  had  prospered  and  grown  rich, 
and  his  own  family  had  risen  to  power,  but 
destroyed  the  power  which  had  made  them 
beneficent.  The  constitution  of  the  city  was 
perverted  by  securing  the  election  of  his  own 
creatures  to  office,  and  so  centering  all  power 
in  himself.  He  thus  came  to  be  absolute,  and 
he  maintained  his  absoluteness  by  a  series  of 
bloody  reprisals  upon  his  enemies  and  by  a 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  133 

system  of  spies  who  ferreted  out  and  brought 
to  summary  punishment  all  opposition.  The 
resources  of  the  city  were  soon  turned  into 
his  own  treasury,  and  he  was  complete  master 
of  the  city  and  its  treasure.  He  did  not  scru- 
ple to  rifle  trust  funds  for  purposes  of  his 
ambition  or  pleasure,  and  on  one  occasion  he 
diverted  a  fund  of  100,000  florins,  established 
for  the  purpose  of  providing  orphan  girls  with 
marriage  dowry,  according  to  the  custom  of 
the  time  in  Italy,  in  consequence  of  which 
scores  of  young  girls  were  deprived  of  hon- 
orable marriage  and  thrown  upon  the  streets. 
That  was  the  kind  of  man  who  was  in  pos- 
session of  Florence  when  Savonarola  arrived 
there  in  1490.  And  yet  it  is  a  tribute  to  some- 
thing in  Lorenzo  betraying  a  certain  great- 
ness of  mind  that  he  not  only  permitted  the 
friar  to  preach  wjjjoput  molestation,  but  that 
on  his  deathbed^he  sent  for  him  to  render 
him  the  last  rites  of  the  Church. 

Savonarola  was  a  man  of  equal  intellectual 
genius  with  Lorenzo,  but  a  man  of  stain- 
less life  and  exalted  moral  nature,  keenly 
alive  to  the  vices  of  his  age  and  painfully  sen- 
sitive of  them.  At  the  age  of  twenty-three 
he  entered  the  Dominican  convent  at  Bo- 
logna, driven  thither  by  an  unbearable  sense 
of  the  wickedness  of  the  world  and  an  irre- 
sistible impulse  to  escape  from  it. 


134 


STRUGGLE   FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


He  had  always  been  noted  for  a  reserved, 
modest  disposition  and  studious  habits,  and 
for  what  was  in  those  days  a  singular  purity 
and  exaltation  of  life.  At  the  age  of  twenty 
he  wrote  a  poem  on  "  The  Ruin  of  the 
World,"  in  which  he  describes  the  condition 
of  the  world  at  the  time.  He  says  that  virtue 
has  everywhere  perished  and  that  decent  cus- 
toms have  ceased  to  be  observed.  The  shame- 
less vice  and  hideous  crimes  he  was  obliged  to 
witness  inflicted  upon  him  the  greatest  suf- 
fering, and  he  prayed  to  be  "  taken  out  of 
the  mire/'  as  he  says.  He  was  destined  for 
the  medical  profession,  in  which  his  ances- 
tors had  long  been  eminent,  and  he  struggled 
hard  to  meet  the  wishes  of  his  parents  by 
preparing  himself  for  that  profession ;  but  the 
conviction  grew  upon  him  that  he  had  a  mis- 
sion in  the  world  which  could  only  be  ful- 
filled by  his  becoming  a  monk.  He  was  at 
that  time  very  fond  of  Plato,  and  displayed 
great  metaphysical  acumen  and  power  in 
preparing  himself  for  that  profession;  but  he 
had  also  learned  to  love  Thomas  Aquinas, 
and  it  was  not  long  after  he  entered  the  con- 
vent that  we  find  him  becoming  absorbed  in 
the  Scriptures.  Soon  they  have  become  his 
chief  book,  and  it  was  said  of  him  that  he 
had  committed  to  memory  the  whole  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments. 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA. 


135 


Savonarola  first  came  into  public  notice  as 
a  man  of  mark  at  a  convention  of  the  brethren 
in  Lombardy,  where  he  startled  and  amazed 
the  assembly  by  the  boldness  of  his  speech 
against  the  prevailing*  wickedness,  and  the 
intensity  of  his  manner.  He  arraigned  the 
Church  for  her  profligacy,  called  upon  her  to 
repent,  and  threatened  her  with  the  direst  ca- 
lamities if  she  did  not.  "  Time  was,"  said  he, 
"  when  the  Church  had  wooden  chalices  and 
golden  prelates;  but  now  she  has  golden 
chalices  and  wooden  prelates.  Repent  you, 
wash  you,  make  you  clean,  lest  a  worse  evil 
befall  you." 

The  moral  aspect  of  the  world  assumed  the 
place  of  first  importance  in  his  thoughts  and 
subordinated  all  other  interests.  Trained  in 
his  youth  for  the  medical  profession,  he  had 
manifested  great  aptitude  for  the  study  of 
philosophy  and  science  and  had  exhibited  a 
strongly  speculative  habit  of  mind.  So  well 
furnished  was  he  in  these  particulars  that  one 
of  his  accusers  at  his  trial  urged  that  so  great 
a  genius  in  science  ought  not  to  be  put  to 
death,  but  kept  in  prison,  that  the  world 
might  profit  by  his  labors.  But  all  these  in- 
terests were  swallowed  up  for  him  in  the 
interest  which  he  nowr  acquired  in  the  Scrip- 
tures and  in  human  life,  and  in  Florence  that 


136          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

interest  was  so  intensified  that  it  grew  into  a 
consuming  passion.  He  was  never  at  vari- 
ance with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  mat- 
ters of  doctrine,  but  attacked  it  solely  on  the 
grounds  of  moral  character. 

In  order  to  understand  this  man  we  should 
study  his  face.  Fortunately,  we  have  it 
painted  by  a  great  master  from  life.  Barto- 
lommeo's  portraits  of  Savonarola  present  al- 
together a  most  remarkable  face.  His  fea- 
tures are  as  clear  cut  and  sharply  defined  as 
the  most  carefully  cut  cameo,  but  as  bold  and 
massive  as  a  face  in  the  mountainous  rock — 
altogether  the  most  remarkable  face  I  ever 
looked  upon,  a  sort  of  combination  of  the 
eagle  and  the  lion.  The  craggy  brow  and  the 
crater-like  depths  of  the  great  eyes,  the  mas- 
sive but  shapely  nose  and  chin,  and  the  sweet, 
large  but  fine,  melancholy,  firm  but  flexible, 
strong  but  beautiful  mouth,  together  with 
the  rugged,  mobile  countenance,  all  bespeak 
the  mighty,  intrepid,  fiery,  impetuous  soul  that 
wrought  in  building  such  a  structure  of  bone 
and  sinew.  There  is  no  superfluous  flesh,  no 
weak  or  deficient  line,  no  excessive  growth, 
but  a  harmony  and  symmetry  of  rugged, 
craggy  strength,  lit  up  with  gleams  of  tender- 
ness and  gentleness,  as  of  a  mountainside 
touched  by  passing  gleams  of  sunlight.  It 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA. 


137 


is  a  perfectly  ideal  face  for  massive  grandeur 
-  unimaginable,  indescribable  —  surpassing 
anything  I  have  ever  seen  in  the  form  of  a 
face — one  of  the  rare  products  of  life  which 
she  never  repeats  and  never  imitates;  it  is 
perfectly  unique  and  without  a  class.  As  one 
looks  upon  the  portrait,  he  readily  under- 
stands the  stories  of  the  monks  about  its  shin- 
ing for  hours  in  the  darkness  of  the  church 
where  he  was  accustomed  to  sit  long  after 
service  in  rapt  meditation. 

The  soul  of  the  Hebrew  prophets  was  in 
this  man.  His  chief  characteristics  were 
great,  good  common  sense,  amounting  to 
genius,  moral  earnestness  and  spiritual  fer- 
vor. He  was  not  a  poet  or  theologian,  as  Lu- 
ther was,  nor  a  scholar  and  thinker,  like  Wyc- 
lif;  but  in  moral  and  spiritual  genius  he 
equalled,  if  he  did  not  surpass,  them  both.  He 
had  in  a  remarkable  degree  the  faculty  of 
prevision  which  enabled  him  to  predict  with 
surprising  exactness  events  which  actually 
came  to  pass.  He  predicted,  among  other 
things,  the  death  of  Lorenzo,  the  invasion  of 
Italy  by  Charles  VIII. ,  and  his  own  death  by 
burning  at  the  hands  of  the  pope. 

That  rare  and,  as  it  seemed  to  the  people 
of  his  day,  supernatural  power,  together  with 
the  austerity  of  his  life,  his  strange  power 


138          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

over  the  spirits  of  men,  his  bold  defiance  of 
the  Medici  and  the  pope,  and  his  burning  elo- 
quence, have  surrounded  his  memory  with 
a  strange,  weird  atmosphere,  as  of  some  wild 
fanatic,  blazing  and  thundering,  blindly  and 
aimlessly,  at  he  knows  not  what.  Nothing 
could  be  farther  from  the  truth. 

Savonarola  had  a  burning  zeal  for  right- 
eousness and  a  soul-consuming  hunger  for 
truth;  but  he  was  not  of  a  speculative  or  im- 
aginative turn  of  mind.  Doctrine  as  such  did 
not  attract  him,  and  he  had  no  taste  for  the- 
orizing. Summoned  to  a  council  of  his  order, 
in  which  the  great  doctors  of  theology  dis- 
cuss the  deep  questions  of  theology,  he  has 
nothing  to  say,  but  sits  apart  brooding  until 
the  questions  of  discipline  and  the  moral  con- 
dition of  the  Church  come  up.  That  brings 
him  to  his  feet,  and  his  fiery,  fulgurous  soul 
leaps  to  his  eyes  and  lips  and  there  burns  and 
flames  until  it  astounds  and  confounds  the 
easy-going,  luxurious  prelates.  With  a  burn- 
ing eloquence  he  scathes  and  scorches  the 
profligate  and  plundering  magnates  of  the 
Church,  by  whom  he  is  surrounded,  and  ex- 
horts them  to  repentance  and  cleansing  of 
life.  He  explicitly  threatens  them  with  divine 
punishment,  if  they  do  not  speedily  turn  from 
their  evil  ways. 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  139 

It  was  inevitable  that  a  man  like  that 
should  come  into  sharp  conflict  with  the  pow- 
ers that  ruled.  The  profligate  Lorenzo  at 
Florence,  and  the  flagitious  Alexander  VI. 
at  Rome,  were  not  likely  to  win  his  ap- 
probation or  to  relish  his  rebukes.  His  fiery 
spirit  and  uncompromising  nature  could  not 
quietly  submit  to  abuses  that  were  ruining 
the  Church  and  the  State. 

His  sermons  made  such  an  impression  upon 
the  people  that  the  cathedral  could  not  hold 
his  audience,  but  it  overflowed  even  there 
and  filled  the  surrounding  space  whenever 
he  preached.  His  favorite  themes  were  the 
vices  of  the  age  and  their  consequences;  the 
wickedness  of  the  priests,  whom  he  held  re- 
sponsible for  them,  and  the  profligacy  of  the 
tyrant,  whose  arts  and  wiles  he  condemned. 
From  these  themes  neither  threats  nor  prom- 
ises would  turn  him  aside. 

Lorenzo  was  cunning  and  crafty  and  tried 
to  conciliate  this  terrible  being,  who  alone 
among  men  dared  to  call  him  to  account. 
"  Go,  tell  your  master,"  replied  the  intrepid 
monk  to  his  friendly  messengers,  "  to  pre- 
pare to  repent  of  his  sins ;  for  the  Lord  spares 
no  one,  and  has  no  fear  of  the  princes  of  the 
earth."  A  fire  burned  within  him,  as  he  ex- 
pressed it,  and  would  not  let  him  keep  si- 


140 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


lent  or  modify  his  utterance,  and  his  words 
were  like  molten  lava,  and  burned  their 
way  into  the  hearts  of  the  people.  But  Lo- 
renzo was  enough  of  a  man  to  honor  him 
whom  he  could  neither  intimidate  nor  mollify, 
and  on  his  deathbed  he  sent  for  the  prior 
of  San  Marco  to  administer  to  him  the  last 
rites  of  his  church.  The  monk  laid  down 
three  conditions:  i.  Repentance  from  his 
sins  and  a  lively  faith  in  God.  To  this  "  The 
Magnificent "  immediately  assents.  2.  The 
restoration  of  all  ill-gotten  gain,  either  by 
himself  or  by  enjoining  it  upon  his  sons. 
There  is  reluctance  here,  but  the  haughty 
spirit  of  the  tyrant  yields.  3.  The  restoration 
to  Florence  of  her  ancient  rights  and  liber- 
ties. The  tyrant  groans  and  turns  his  back 
upon  the  friar.  The  inflexible  monk  draws 
his  cowl  over  his  face  and  leaves  the  palace, 
and  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  dies  uncon- 
fessed. 

The  year  after  Savonarola  began  to  preach 
in  Florence  the  infamous  Rodrigo  Borgia  se- 
cured the  papal  throne  by  bribery.  He  was  a 
man  of  undoubted  ability,  but  of  most  scan- 
dalous life.  No  pope  has  ever  more  thor- 
oughly disgraced  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  His 
ambition  was  to  amass  wealth  and  secure 
thrones  for  his  children.  For  this  purpose  he 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA. 


141 


sold  the  offices  of  the  Church  and  used  all  the 
rites  and  prerogatives  of  the  papacy  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  revenue.  One  of  Boc- 
caccio's stories  is  applicable  to  this  time.* 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  Savonarola 
would  suffer  such  abuses  as  these  to  go  un- 
rebuked,  nor  that  a  man  like  the  pope  would 
long  endure  his  rebukes  with  patience.  At 
first  he  treated  him  with  contempt,  then  he 
tried  to  conciliate  him  with  flattery,  then  he 
endeavored  to  bribe  him  with  the  offer  of 
dignities;  but  the  wise  monk  knew  too  well 
the  motives  that  animated  the  potentate  to 
be  caught  with  any  of  his  wiles.  He  declined 
to  go  to  Rome  and  refused  the  offer  of  a  car- 
dinal's hat  with  the  words,  "  Tell  your  master 
that  the  only  hat  I  shall  ever  receive  from  him 

*  He  tells  of  a  Jew  who  lived  in  Paris  and  had  a 
Christian  friend  anxious  for  his  conversion.  The 
Jew  finally  announced  his  intention  to  go  to  Rome 
and  see  the  Christian  religion  at  its  headquarters. 
That  dismayed  the  Christian,  for  he  well  knew  the 
riot  and  dissipation  he  would  find  at  Rome  and, 
most  of  all,  with  the  pope  and  cardinals.  In  due 
time  the  Jew  returned  to  Paris  a  Christian,  and  ex- 
plained his  conversion  by  saying  that  what  he  saw 
at  Rome  had  convinced  him  that  the  Christian  religion 
must  have  a  supernatural  origin  and  a  divine  sup- 
port, else  it  would  have  been  driven  out  of  the  world 
by  the  profligacy  and  folly  of  its  guardians. 


142          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

will  be  the  red  hat  of  flames."  Alexander 
then  set  himself  at  open  war  with  the  friar  and 
determined  upon  his  destruction. 

Savonarola  was  at  that  time  by  far  the  most 
eloquent,  powerful,  influential  and  famous 
preacher  in  Christendom,  as  for  ten  years, 
from  1488  to  1498,  he  was  the  foremost  man 
of  all  Italy.  His  influence  at  that  time  was 
felt  strongly  at  the  universities  in  England, 
and  students  who  returned  to  be  lecturers  and 
professors  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  brought 
back  something  of  the  fire  they  had  lighted  at 
his  torch.  He  used  his  power  wisely  and  well. 
He  taught  the  people  the  Scriptures,  a  pure 
morality  and  a  high  spirituality.  He  admon- 
ished the  wicked  and  encouraged  the  weak.  He 
called  all  men  to  repentance  and  preached  to 
them  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels.  He  spared 
none,  and  he  had  no  respect  for  persons.  He 
treated  prince  and  peasant  alike,  and  knew 
no  fear  for  emperor  or  pope,  but  for  God 
only.  Indeed,  for  a  time  he  ruled  Florence  as 
no  monarch  ever  ruled  a  State.  The  people 
daily  thronged  the  cathedral  and  crowded  the 
surrounding  space,  and  were  swept  and  fired 
by  the  mighty  tides  of  passion  which  rose  from 
his  soul  as  streams  from  a  burning  volcano, 
and  poured  forth  from  his  lips  like  fiery  tor- 
rents burning  their  way  into  every  heart. 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  143 

Like  another  Paul,  "  he  reasoned  with  them 
of  truth  and  righteousness  and  a  judgment 
to  come."  He  dealt  with  the  common  sins 
of  the  day,  the  vices,  the  crimes,  the  iniqui- 
ties, the  abuses  of  every  class  of  society,  the 
dishonesty  of  the  merchants,  the  untruthful- 
ness  of  the  professional  classes,  the  gambling 
and  drunkenness  and  licentiousness  of  all ;  and 
he  did  it  with  a  swift,  trenchant,  pungent 
earnestness  which  sent  his  flaming  words  to 
the  hearts  of  all,  like  arrows  tipped  with  fire, 
there  to  lodge  and  kindle  a  kindred  flame. 
The  people  bowed  themselves  and  wept  at  his 
accusations  and  appeals  and  went  forth  hum- 
ble and  penitent,  to  lay  aside  the  sins  which 
had  caused  their  ruin.  Gambling  disappeared 
and  drunkenness  ceased,  and  for  three  years 
Florence,  from  being  the  most  profligate  city 
in  Europe,  became  the  most  orderly  and 
righteous.  It  was  during  that  time  as  near 
perhaps  as  any  city  ever  was  to  being  a  Puri- 
tan city. 

But  a  city  that  had  been  enslaved  to  men 
and  demons  for  a  century  was  not  to  be  re- 
stored by  a  single  revolution,  nor  in  a  night. 

This  remarkable  man  had  the  gift  of  vision 
and  of  prediction.  He  early  came  to  a  sense 
of  a  mission  in  the  world,  which  grew  upon 
him  until  he  began  to  expect  some  particular 


144  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

message  of  the  work  he  was  to  do;  and  in 
1484  the  message  came.  The  heavens  seemed 
to  open  before  him  and  a  voice  commanded 
him  to  proclaim  three  things:  (i)  that  the 
Church  should  be  scourged  for  its  wicked- 
ness; (2)  that  it  should  be  renovated,  and  (3) 
that  this  should  come  to  pass  soon. 

Other  visions  followed  this,  and  soon  he 
began  to  predict,  with  remarkable  accuracy, 
coming  events. 

While  he  was  yet  but  a  lecturer,  as  he 
stood  in  the  pulpit  lecturing  one  Saturday, 
he  hesitated,  reflected  and  finally  announced 
that  to-morrow  he  would  begin  to  preach  and 
would  continue  to  preach  eight  years;  and 
that  actually  occurred.  On  one  occasion, 
when  Lorenzo  sent  a  friend  to  talk  with  him 
about  his  attacks  upon  the  tyrant,  with  a  sug- 
gestion of  danger,  the  strange  monk  divined 
the  inspiration  of  the  messenger,  and  said, 
"  Go,  tell  Lorenzo  that  not  I,  but  he,  shall 
leave  Florence,  and  that  very  soon."  Within 
a  few  months  "  The  Magnificent  "  was  dead. 
So,  also,  he  predicted  the  speedy  death  of  the 
pope,  which  soon  followed;  and  three  years 
before  it  happened,  when  there  was  absolutely 
no  prospect  of  it,  he  had  foretold  the  coming 
of  the  French  into  Italy.  So,  also,  he  pre- 
dicted his  own  death. 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  145 

These  and  other  prophecies  which  actually 
were  fulfilled  in  a  brief  space,  with  remark- 
able accuracy,  caused  him  to  be  regarded  with 
a  reverence  amounting  to  awe,  as  of  one  pos- 
sessed with  superhuman  powers. 

The  charge  has  sometimes  been  made 
against  Savonarola  that  he  was  a  visionary 
and  blind  fanatic.  While  it  is  true  that  he 
had  visions  and  made  predictions,  it  is  also 
true  that  his  visions  were  of  the  nature  of 
revelations  of  the  true  inwardness  of  things, 
and  his  predictions  actually  were  fulfilled.  His 
sermons,  in  the  light  of  subsequent  history, 
read  like  inspired  prophecies,  and  his  conduct 
in  the  midst  of  the  gravest  dangers  shows  him 
to  have  been  a  man  of  the  most  solid  judg- 
ment and  the  most  capacious  understanding 
— the  most  colossal  man  of  his  time. 

When  the  French  invaded  Italy,  as  he  had 
predicted,  Piero  de  Medici,  who  was  then  in 
control,  basely  betrayed  Florence  into  their 
hands.  The  people  determined  not  to  submit 
to  such  a  disgrace,  and  they  turned  to  Savon- 
arola for  advice.  He  called  them  together  in 
the  cathedral  and  counseled  an  embassy  to 
the  French  king,  and  after  all  efforts  to  se- 
cure favorable  terms  for  the  city  had  failed,  he 
took  his  way  to  the  French  camp,  admonished 
the  king  of  his  duties,  warned  him  to  have  a 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


care  of  his  actions,  and  threatened  the  direst 
penalties  if  he  abused  his  power.  The  obdu- 
rate and  unscrupulous  despot,  who  would 
hearken  to  neither  the  voice  of  conscience  nor 
of  humanity,  who  neither  feared  God  nor  re- 
garded man,  quailed  before  the  mighty  spirit 
of  the  monk  and  swore  friendship  to  the  city ; 
and  when  he  seemed  in  danger  of  forgetting 
his  oaths,  the  indomitable  monk  sought  him 
out  again,  reminded  him  of  his  pledges,  and 
ordered  him  to  leave  the  city.  Charles  put 
himself  at  the  head  of  his  victorious  army  and 
marched  away. 

In  this  marvelous  magic  of  his  spirit  Savon- 
arola closely  resembles  Bernard  of  Clairvaux; 
and  whether  any  one  else  has  equaled  these 
two  in  that  respect,  I  am  doubtful.  The  effect 
of  Demosthenes'  Philippics  I  do  not  think 
equal  to  the  effect  of  Savonarola's  sermons, 
by  which  he  held  Florence  against  the  com- 
bined powers  of  the  world  in  Church  and 
State  for  four  years. 

The  events  of  the  invasion  left  the  city 
panic-stricken  and  its  chief  men  paralyzed.  In 
the  midst  of  the  confusion  and  despair  the 
great  Dominican  alone  was  calm,  self-pos- 
sessed, equal  to  the  emergency.  The  Medici 
did  not  dare  to  show  their  faces,  and  when 
they  were  gone  the  ruling  spirit  was  seen  to 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  147 

be  the  prior  of  San  Marco.  In  their  extremity 
the  people  turned  to  him.  He  outlined  a  con- 
stitution for  them,  and  the  successive  steps  in 
the  development  of  the  new  government  can 
be  traced  in  his  sermons  during  four  years. 
He  was  the  mind,  the  conscience,  and  the  will 
of  Florence. 

So  long  as  he  could  occupy  his  pulpit  there 
was  no  question  of  his  supremacy  in  Florence. 
Enemies  and  friends  alike  bowed  to  the  subtle, 
irresistible  magic  of  his  eloquence.  (It  is  said 
that  a  letter  of  admonition  which  he  addressed 
to  the  wicked  pope,  who  was  already  com- 
mitted to  the  monk's  destruction,  caused  that 
shameless  potentate  to  pause  for  a  time  and 
reflect  on  his  career.  It  was  the  only  thing 
that  ever  did.)  He  could  hold  Florence 
against  any  foe  as  long  as  he  had  his  pulpit; 
but,  weakened  at  length  by  the  long  struggle 
and  by  his  vigils  and  fastings,  and  forbidden 
by  the  pope  to  preach,  he  was  glad  to  relax  his 
labors  for  a  time.  Then  his  enemies  began 
to  work.  The  plague  fell  upon  the  city  to 
help  them,  and  injudicious  friends  and  parti- 
sans played  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 

No  man  knew  better  than  the  preacher  the 
danger  of  his  position.  The  prelates  and  aris- 
tocrats were  a  unit  against  him.  The  pope 
and  the  emperqr  were  agreed  in  the  necessity 


148          STRUGGLE   F01 

for  his  overthrow.  Among"  the  people  them- 
selves many  had  been  deprived  of  their  in- 
comes by  the  suppression  of  vice,  and  many 
more  chafed  uneasily  under  the  unaccus- 
tomed and  unwelcome  restraint  the  new 
regime  had  forced  upon  them,  and  sighed  for 
the  former  days.  Every  vile  thing  within  the 
city  that  had  been  suppressed  or  restrained 
chafed  and  fumed  in  its  bondage  and  clam- 
ored for  release.  Paid  emissaries  from  the 
Medici  and  the  pope  went  about  at  the  elec- 
tions seeking  plans  in  the  council  that  they 
might  betray  the  prior,  whom  they  could  not 
otherwise  reach,  and  overthrow  the  republic, 
which  was  impossible  while  he  occupied  the 
pulpit  in  the  cathedral. 

All  this  the  wonderful  man  knew  and  de- 
clared. He  saw  the  darkness  thicken  about 
his  path,  the  plots  multiply,  and  the  con- 
spiracies coming  to  completion.  The  end  was 
approaching,  dark  and  terrible,  but  he  held 
steadily  on  his  way. 

In  spite  of  his  visions  Savonarola  was  not  a 
visionary;  no  mental  hallucinations  afflicted 
him — he  was  a  mystic  but  not  a  maniac.  They 
wanted  him  to  be  king-,  but  he  refused  aH 
public  office,  and  set  up  over  his  pulpit  the  in- 
scription, "  Jesus  Christ  is  King  of  Florence." 

Unable  longer  to  endure  his  rebukes,  the 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  149 

pope  decided,  in  1497,  to  silence  the  irre- 
pressible monk  in  the  only  possible  way.  He 
had  disregarded  his  briefs,  spurned  his  offers 
of  dignities,  and  ignored  the  sentence  of  ex- 
communication. Peremptory  orders  for  his 
arrest  were  now  forwarded  to  Florence,  where 
the  government  had  come  into  the  hands  of 
his  enemies.  His  sentence  was  also  prepared 
at  Rome  and  sent  by  special  envoys. 

Humane  sentiment  compels  us  to  draw  a 
veil  over  the  inhuman  cruelty  with  which  he 
was  tortured  in  the  name  of  a  trial.  I  have 
never  been  able  to  read  that  account  a  second 
time.  It  was  a  shocking  and  terrible  end; 
the  rack  for  days,  so  that  every  bone  in  his 
body  was  crushed,  every  joint  dislocated, 
and  his  flesh  torn  until  the  mutilated  muscles 
could  scarce  hold  the  broken  body  together. 
Delirious  with  pain,  he  raved  wildly,  and 
his  enemies  make  much  of  it,  but  he  declined 
till  the  last  to  write  his  recantation  with 
his  right  hand,  which  alone  of  his  members 
had  been  kept  unmaimed  for  that  purpose. 
When  it  was  seen  that  his  tortured  body 
could  no  longer  endure,  he  was  haled  to  the 
stake  and  suspended  by  the  neck,  yet  so  as 
not  to  strangle,  and  a  slow  fire  kindled  be- 
neath him.  Thus  ascended,  in  his  chariot  of 
fire,  the  mightiest  spirit  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. 


150          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  Savonarola's  work 
perished  with  him.  He  who  thinks  so  does 
not  understand  the  history  of  Florence  or  of 
Italy  since  his  day.  Some  of  the  best  features 
of  the  municipal  government  in  Florence  to- 
day are  the  survivals  of  his  constitution.  The 
Medici  were  not  permitted  to  return  to  Flor- 
ence for  some  years  after  his  death.  Michael 
Angelo  was  a  diligent  student  of  his  writings, 
and  the  evangelical  party  in  Italy  under  the 
title  of  the  "  Oratory  of  the  Divine  Love," 
which  numbered  some  of  the  most  influen- 
tial princes  and  cardinals  among  its  mem- 
bers, secured  the  calling  of  the  Council  of 
Trent,  which,  while  it  reaffirmed  Catholic 
doctrine  and  denounced  Protestantism,  in- 
augurated measures  of  reform  within  the 
Church  which  did  away  with  its  worst  abuses, 
and  made  it  forever  impossible  for  a  pope  to 
buy  his  election  or  maintain  a  profligate  and 
scandalous  court. 

Savonarola's  influence  upon  the  people  also 
was  not  without  results.  No  memory  is  more 
green  in  Italy  than  his,  and  every  year,  on  the 
anniversary  of  his  death,  floral  offerings  are 
heaped  profusely  about  the  doors  of  the 
cathedral.  His  teachings  and  his  hopes  sur- 
vived and  came  to  their  fruit  in  men  like  Maz- 
zini  and  Garibaldi.  It  is  true  that  he  founded 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  151 

no  school,  established  no  church,  and  that 
no  institution  or  society  bears  his  name;  but 
he  left  his  works  and  the  example  of  his  life 
and  death  for  liberty,  and  these  have  proved 
a  deathless  flame  in  the  hearts  of  many.  I 
doubt  whether  united  Italy  could  have  been 
accomplished  as  it  was  without  his  work;  or 
whether  a  state  government  in  Italy,  free  from 
ecclesiastical  control,  could  now  be  peacefully 
maintained  in  the  face  of  determined  oppo- 
sition. Neither  do  we  forget  that  Master  Co- 
let  carried  something  of  his  influence  to  Eng- 
land and  imparted  it  to  the  attendants  at  his 
lectures  there. 

Three  great  names  adorn  Italian  history, 
as  they  also  still  continue  to  inspire  her  march 
—Dante,  Savonarola  and  Michael  Angelo. 
The  mighty  spirits  of  these  three  pure  patriots 
have  survived  their  own  day  and  work  and 
have  informed  and  heartened  the  best  of  Ital- 
ians to  this  day.  The  truths  they  set  forth 
have  been  the  principles  on  which  Italy's  best 
minds  have  worked,  and  the  measure  in  which 
they  wrought  and  suffered  for  those  truths 
has  kept  the  fires  of  patriotism  and  self-sac- 
rifice alive  in  thousands  of  hearts.  The  un- 
sullied purity  of  their  lives  has  served  as  a  salt 
to  the  noblest  of  its  subsequent  heroes;  and 
of  these  three  no  memory  is  more  green  in 


152  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

Italy  or  name  more  cherished  than  the  name 
and  memory  of  Savonarola.  We  may  even 
say  that  there  is  no  name  in  Christendom  to- 
day, apart  from  Him  whose  name  is  above 
every  name,  that  commands  a  more  instant 
and  spontaneous  response — none,  not  even 
among  our  own  beloved  heroes,  that  exerts 
a  greater  charm  upon  the  imagination,  or 
throws  a  stronger,  more  alluring  spell  over 
the  spirits  of  men.  The  lives  of  such  men  are 
never  lost;  their  work  is  never  ended,  their 
influence  never  dies.  They  are  allied  with  the 
eternal  forces  which  work  perpetual  progress, 
and  though  the  stream  of  time  bears  them 
away,  it  gathers  up  and  carries  forward  their 
work,  as  the  sea  holds  the  waters  of  the 
streams  that  empty  into  it. 

The  dream  of  these  three  men  and  the  am- 
bition of  their  lives  were  to  see  Italy  freed 
from  the  control  of  the  Church  in  all  tem- 
poral affairs  and  united  into  one  kingdom. 
That  dream,  so  impossible  then,  is  an  accom- 
plished fact  to-day,  and  the  spirit  of  the  great 
three  burned  in  the  hearts  of  the  men  who 
brought  it  to  pass. 

The  good  that  men  do  lives  after  them. 
History  is  wax  to  receive  and  marble  to  retain 
the  impression  of  a  great  soul.  Secret  and 
subtle  forces  are  silently  but  irresistibly  at 


ITALY — SAVONAROLA.  153 

work  diffusing  the  influence  of  such  a  man 
and  transmitting  it  to  successive  generations. 
Those  long  dead  and  forgotten  live  again  in 
lives  made  better  by  their  presence.  For  men 
like  the  great  Dominican  live 

"  In  pulses  stirred  to  generosity, 

In  deeds  of  daring  rectitude;  in  scorn 

For  miserable  aims  that  end  with  self, 

In  thoughts  sublime  that  pierce  the  night  like  stars, 

And  with  their  mild  persistence  urge  man's  search 

To  vaster  issues." 


LECTURE   V. 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  IN  HOL- 
LAND— THE  TRAGEDY  OF  THE  REFORMA- 
TION— WILLIAM  THE  SILENT. 


The  two  great  arenas  of  the  Reformation 
were,  as  we  have  seen,  England  and  Germany. 
In  both  of  these  countries  the  battle  for  re- 
ligious freedom  was  fought  on  a  vast  field  and 
with  tremendous  forces.  The  splendor  of 
these  conflicts  is  likely  to  blind  our  eyes  to 
others  that  were  being  waged  at  the  same 
time  and  for  the  same  purpose,  though  on 
more  contracted  theatres  and  with  less  bril- 
liant results,  but  not  with  less  heroism  or  less 
disregard  of  temporal  considerations. 

The  Reformation  in  Switzerland,  under  the 
leadership  of  the  great-souled  and  enlightened 
Ulrich  Zwingli,  stands  among  the  noblest  ef- 
forts of  nations  to  free  themselves  from  po- 
litical and  ecclesiastical  bondage. 

In  France,  the  Protestants,  under  the  lead- 
ership of  the  great  Coligny,  grew  to  consid- 
erable proportions  among  all  classes  of  the 
people,  in  spite  of  systematic  and  bitter  perse- 


HOLLAND — WILLIAM   THE   SILENT.  155 

cution;  and  even  the  atrocious  crime  of  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  and  the  policy 
of  extermination  which  followed,  were  not 
able  to  stamp  them  out.  Norway,  Sweden 
and  Denmark  became  Protestant,  and  Prot- 
estants secured  religious  toleration  among 
the  Slavonic  peoples,  and  in  Bohemia  and 
Hungary. 

One  of  the  remarkable  features  of  the  great 
religious  movement  known  as  the  Reforma- 
tion is  the  number  and  variety  of  great  men 
that  it  called  forth.  A  perfect  galaxy  of  lumi- 
nous names  spans  those  three  centuries,  as 
the  milky  way  "  rends  the  azure  robe  of 
night."  Among  them  are  many  that  pierce 
the  night  like  stars  of  the  first  magnitude: 
scholars,  orators,  statesmen,  soldiers,  poets 
and  artists;  men  of  thought  and  men  of  ac- 
tion, who  for  capacity  and  power  rank  with 
the  greatest  in  history  and  are  surpassed  by 
none,  either  in  exalted  genius  or  excellence  of 
character.  It  may  be  said  that  the  greatest 
minds  of  three  centuries,  beginning  with 
John  Wyclif  and  ending  with  William  III.  of 
England,  were  enlisted  in  the  great  Protestant 
movement,  and  that  the  movement  itself  crys- 
tallized in  them  and  rallied  upon  them. 

It  was,  of  course,  a  movement  of  principles 
in  the  sphere  of  religion — a  religious  move- 


156  STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

ment,  as  we  say — the  religious  truths  of  the 
time  coming  to  their  birth  and  working  them- 
selves clear.  But  they  had  their  birth  in  in- 
dividuals, and  the  personal  qualities  and  plas- 
tic agencies  of  individuals  capable  of  creating 
and  sustaining  in  others  the  vital  quickening 
of  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,  of  which 
they  themselves  had  first  been  the  subjects, 
must  be  taken  into  account  in  any  adequate 
estimate  of  the  movement  itself.  Men  as  in- 
trepid, as  dauntless,  as  self-sacrificing  and 
heroic  as  they  were  large-minded  and 
prophetic-spirited,  were  as  conspicuous  in  the 
struggle  as  the  truths  and  principles  for  which 
they  contended  were  novel  and  commanding. 
In  the  sixteenth  century  two  opposite  prin- 
ciples of  life,  two  kinds  of  civilization  and  re- 
ligion, diametrically  opposed  to  each  other, 
met  and  contended  for  the  mastery.  Feudal- 
ism and  ecclesiasticism,  absolutism  in  the 
State  and  absolutism  in  the  Church,  were  the 
order  of  the  day.  But  democracy  and  individ- 
ualism began  to  appear.  The  spirit  of  the 
modern  time  met  and  came  in  conflict  with 
the  spirit  of  mediaevalism.  They  could  not 
coalesce;  compromise  was  impossible.  Each 
recognized  in  the  other  its  implacable,  deadly 
foe.  They  locked  in  the  death  grapple  and 
poured  out  their  blood  without  stint.  There 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT. 


157 


could  be  no  truce  in  that  war;  it  was  war  to 
the  death.  Absolutism  could  give  no  quarter 
to  democracy;  ecclesiasticism  to  the  freedom 
of  conscience;  mediaevalism  to  the  right  of 
private  judgment.  At  the  opposite  poles  of 
thought  and  civilization  they  acted  like  the 
opposite  poles  of  electricity.  When  brought 
together,  they  struck  fire  and  burned  as  long 
as  the  currents  flowed. 

The  fierceness  and  sanguinariness  of  the 
great  struggle  was  due  to  that  fact,  and  not 
alone  to  the  fact  that  it  was  a  religious  revo- 
lution. It  was  not  until  the  religious  principle 
of  freedom  and  righteousness  met  the  political 
and  ecclesiastical  principles  of  absolutism  and 
conformity,  which  sought  to  hold  down  the 
truth  with  violence,  that  the  spark  was  struck 
and  the  fire  kindled. 

The  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  was 
comparatively  peaceful  and  bloodless.  Men 
for  a  time  fought  their  battles  with  the  intel- 
lectual weapons  of  debate  and  edicts;  but  as 
the  controversy  proceeded  the  real  nature  of 
the  new  doctrines  began  to  appear,  and  with 
it  the  absolute  impossibility  of  light  and  dark- 
ness to  maintain  fellowship.  Then  men  fell  by 
the  ears  and  blood  began  to  flow  like  water. 

Two  things  are  to  be  noted  at  the  outset 
in  connection  with  the  Reformation  in  Eu- 


158          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

rope  in  the  sixteenth  century.  They  are,  first, 
the  manner  in  which  the  movement  organized 
itself  about  and  rallied  upon  great  persons, 
in  its  political  aspects;  second,  the  way  in 
which  it  adapted  itself  to  the  mental  traits 
and  moral  qualities  of  the  nations  among 
whom  it  wrought. 

Just  because  it  was  a  religious  movement, 
its  tendencies  and  consequences  were  not  re- 
stricted, but  its  influence  extended  to  every 
domain  of  human  life.  It  revolutionized  not 
only  religion,  but  education,  literature,  sci- 
ence, art,  philosophy,  methods  of  thought 
and  habits  of  life,  governments,  domestic  and 
social  life. 

And  this  it  did  largely  through  the  charac- 
ter and  personality  of  the  men  who  espoused 
its  principles  and  guided  its  course. 

A  surprising  number  of  great  men  sprang 
up  as  leaders  of  Reformation  forces.  Where 
the  leaders  were  early  and  effectually  crushed, 
as  in  Italy,  Austria  and  France,  the  cause  it- 
self languished  and  failed ;  but  when  they  were 
able  to  maintain  themselves,  as  in  the  north  of 
Europe  and  in  England,  the  cause  succeeded. 

The  political  aspect  of  the  Reformation  is 
everywhere  prominent,  because  of  the  close 
and  intimate  connection  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  with  political  affairs.  It  has  always  been 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT. 


159 


a  political  institution  far  more  jealous  of  its 
temporal  than  its  spiritual  prerogatives,  and 
therefore  anxious  to  maintain  uniformity  in 
the  Church,  so  as  to  secure  unity  among 
States.  Disaffection  in  the  one  meant  disrup- 
tion in  the  other.  So  long  as  the  spiritual  su- 
premacy of  the  Church  could  be  maintained, 
there  was  no  question  as  to  its  temporal  domi- 
nation. The  Empire  of  the  Middle  Ages  was 
but  the  right  arm  of  ecclesiastical  despotism. 
To  question  her  spiritual  claims  was  to  aim 
at  her  domination  of  princes.  Hence,  wher- 
ever the  Reformation  took  any  deep  hold  upon 
the  people,  it  raised  at  once  the  political  ques- 
tion, and  its  success  was  always  followed  by 
political  disruption.  And  when  the  move- 
ment had  run  its  course,  there  was  no  longer 
any  excuse  for  the  existence  of  even  the  fig- 
ment of  the  Roman  Empire.  It  died  from 
want  of  breath,  because  its  native  air  was  ex- 
hausted. 

Owing  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  under 
which  it  culminated  and  was  fought  out,  the 
Reformation  in  the  Netherlands  was  more  dis- 
tinctively political  than  in  any  other  country, 
and  its  great  hero  was  a  political  and  military 
rather  than  a  theological  leader.  Indeed,  it 
is  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  Reformation 
in  Holland  that  it  developed  no  great  theo- 


160          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

logical  or  distinctively  religious  leader.  It  re- 
quired the  services  of  a  statesman  and  a  sol- 
dier, and  the  man  whom  it  found  was  so 
great  in  these  realms  and  his  achievements  so 
marvelous  that  his  fame  has  eclipsed  that  of 
all  his  associates,  even  as  his  single  power  and 
influence  excelled  them  all  at  the  time. 
William  of  Orange  was  one  of  the  princes  of 
the  earth,  but  his  work  was  done  entirely  at 
the  council  board  and  in  the  camp.  He  was 
neither  a  speaker  nor  a  writer  upon  religious 
subjects.  Apart  from  such  references  to 
these  things  in  his  State  papers  and  letters  as 
were  inevitable  (and  which  show  what  he 
might  have  done  in  religion  and  theology), 
he  took  no  part  in  the  theologic  discussions  of 
the  time. 

The  need  of  such  a  leader  is  to  be  explained 
chiefly  by  the  condition  of  the  country  and 
the  foe  against  whom  he  had  to  fight. 

Philip  II.  inherited  from  his  father  all  his 
vast  possessions,  in  1555.  They  constituted 
the  most  splendid  empire  of  modern  times. 
As  King  of  Spain  he  was  master  of  the  richest 
part  of  the  New  World,  of  Italy,  of  the  Span- 
ish Hapsburg  interests  in  Austria  and  Ger- 
many, of  Burgundy  and  the  Netherlands. 
The  wealth,  the  military,  and  the  naval  powers 
of  the  world  were  his.  He  possessed  the  most 


HOLLAND WILLIAM   THE   SILENT.  l6l 

splendid  navy  the  world  had  ever  seen,  and 
was  master  of  the  seas,  while  his  armies  were 
composed  of  trained  and  veteran  troops,  com- 
manded by  the  most  renowned  generals  of  the 
age. 

Along  with  his  magnificent  possessions 
Philip  also  inherited  his  father's  absolute  pol- 
icy and  his  imperious  temper;  but  none  of  his 
intellectual  ability  or  genial  manners.  Philip 
II.  was  possessed  by  two  ruling  ideas.  The 
first  was  to  make  himself  absolute  in  Europe ; 
the  second  to  re-establish  the  unity  and  uni- 
versal supremacy  of  the  Roman  Church.  Be- 
sides these  two  ideas,  the  most  skilful  opera- 
tion of  intellectual  surgery  could  not  succeed 
in  gaining  entrance  for  any  others  into  his 
mind.  The  tenacity  with  which  he  held  these 
two  resolves,  and  the  reckless  ferocity  with 
which  he  pursued  them,  made  him  notorious 
in  history  as  the  immediate  cause  of  the  re- 
volt of  the  Netherlands,  and  so  the  instigator 
of  the  darkest  tragedy  in  the  history  of 
nations. 

He  belonged  to  that  large  class  of  persons 
who  can  learn  nothing  by  experience  and  for 
whom  the  severest  calamities  have  no  lessons. 

In  personal  appearance  he  was  unprepos- 
sessing. Below  the  average  height,  he  had  a 
corpulent  body  set  upon  very  disproportion- 


1 62          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

ate  legs.  He  had  the  projecting  Burgundian 
under  jaw,  which  descended  as  inevitably  in 
that  line  as  their  hereditary  titles  and  estates. 
He  had  also  the  dull,  heavy  Spanish  eye,  and 
the  Hapsburg  coarse,  irregular  features.  His 
manners  were  cold  and  distant.  He  was  ar- 
rogant and  gloomy.  His  chief  pleasures  were 
eating  and  drinking  and  sensual  indulgence, 
in  all  of  which  he  ran  to  excess.  His  appe- 
tites and  passions  had  absolute  control  of  him. 
He  was  so  inordinately  fond  of  pastry  and 
ate  it  in  such  quantities  that  he  suffered  for 
many  years  from  constant  pains  in  his  stom- 
ach in  consequence.  His  mind  was  sluggish ; 
his  will  vacillating  and  uncertain,  and  his 
methods  mechanical  and  arbitrary. 

Such  a  man  and  the  Dutch  people  were  to 
each  other  like  the  negative  and  positive  poles 
of  electricity.  They  could  not  come  together 
without  striking  fire;  it  only  needed  that  the 
pressure  should  be  steady  and  prolonged  in 
order  to  kindle  a  conflagration  that  would 
shock  and  stupefy  the  world. 

According  to  his  most  trustworthy  biog- 
rapher, the  only  time  that  Philip  II.  was  ever 
heard  to  laugh  aloud  was  when  the  massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew  was  reported  to  him. 

By  far  the  most  flourishing  and  enlightened 
portion  of  Philip's  vast  domains  was  the 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE    SILENT. 


163 


Netherlands.  When  the  commercial  and 
financial  supremacy  of  the  world  had  been 
driven  from  the  cities  of  Northern  Italy  by 
political  and  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  it  took  up 
its  abode  in  the  Netherlands.  Antwerp  be- 
came the  cosmopolitan  city  of  the  world,  and 
a  score  of  other  cities  became  famous  for  their 
wealth  and  industries.  Factories  dotted  the 
land  and  invention  flourished. 

The  people  of  the  North,  what  is  now  the 
kingdom  of  Holland,  were  of  ancient  Frisian 
blood,  who  alone  among  the  German  races 
had  developed,  besides  local  self-government, 
a  democracy  without  a  trace  of  royalty  or  no- 
bility. They  were  a  sturdy,  thrifty,  intelligent 
people,  who  had  reclaimed  their  land  from  the 
sea  and  knew  how  to  say  to  it,  "  Thus  far 
shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther;  and  here  shall 
thy  proud  waves  be  stayed."  Their  long  con- 
flict with  the  elements  had  inured  them  to 
hardship  and  cultivated  the  qualities  of  enter- 
prise and  independence.  They  were  also  in- 
telligent, had  excellent  schools,  and  the  Bible 
had  been  translated  into  their  vernacular 
in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
It  is  said  by  a  contemporary  historian  that 
the  fishermen  discussed  the  Scriptures  like 
men  from  the  university.  Their  universities 
were  at  that  time  the  best,  and  were  always 


164 


STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


thronged  with  students.  Erasmus,  the  great- 
est of  the  humanists,  was  a  native  of  Rotter- 
dam. 

The  people  of  the  southern  provinces,  now 
the  kingdom  of  Belgium,  were  of  a  different 
origin  and  different  mental  and  moral  traits. 
Flemish,  Walloon  and  French  blood  predom- 
inated there  and  they  used  the  French  lan- 
guage. 

Among  the  people  of  the  North  the  ideas 
of  the  Reformation  found  early  and  free  ac- 
cess, secured  general  acceptance  and  enthusi- 
astic support,  and,  aided  by  local  self-govern- 
ment, they  took  deep  root  in  the  minds  of  the 
people.  The  people  of  the  southern  provinces 
were  less  hospitable  towards  them,  but  they 
found  many  warm  advocates  and  staunch  sup- 
porters even  in  Flanders,  and  in  Brussels  the 
first  martyrs  were  burned  as  early  as  1526. 

Severe  edicts  had  been  issued  by  Charles 
V.  and  the  Inquisition  established  to  prevent 
the  progress  of  Lutherism  in  the  Netherlands. 
The  country  had  suffered  severely  in  conse- 
cjuence,  but  the  new  religious  views  and 
practices  had  continued  to  spread.  Philip, 
however,  was  determined  to  stamp  them  out 
at  any  cost  to  himself  or  the  Netherlands.  In- 
capable of  devising  any  original  or  effective 
measures  for  such  an  undertaking,  he  was  yet 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT. 


'6S 


possessed  of  the  power  to  inflict  unlimited 
injuries  upon  any  foe  against  whom  his  wrath 
was  kindled,  but  whom  he  did  not  possess  the 
requisite  sagacity  to  conquer.  His  whole  reign 
was  one  long  attempt  to  secure,  by  brute 
force,  what  nothing  but  the  most  far-seeing 
statesmanship  and  the  most  skilful  diplomacy 
could  have  accomplished.  It  was  therefore  a 
series  of  humiliating  defeats  and  irretrievable 
disasters.  In  the  Netherlands  he  aroused  a 
spirit  of  revolt  which  precipitated  the  tragedy 
of  the  Reformation  and  the  ultimate  ruin  of 
Spain.  There  in  the  Netherlands  his  ponder- 
ous brute  force  was  pitted  against  a  states- 
manship of  the  highest  order,  a  diplomacy  of 
the  most  accomplished  finesse,  and  a  heroism 
and  enthusiasm  as  exalted  and  devoted  as  it 
was  pure  and  unselfish.  No  people,  however, 
were  ever  more  unprepared  for  a  struggle  in 
defense  of  their  own  liberties  than  were  the 
Dutch  people  at  that  time. 

In  the  person  of  William  of  Orange  they 
found  a  champion  who  was  also  a  national 
representative,  both  in  moral  qualities  and 
mental  traits.  Although  born  upon  German 
soil  and  Duke  of  Nassau  in  Germany  and 
Prince  of  Orange  in  France,  he  yet  held  vast 
possessions  in  the  Netherlands,  where  his 
family  had  held  high  office  for  some  genera- 


i66 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


tions,  and  he  always  considered  himself  as  be- 
longing to  that  country.  Charles  V.  had 
made  him  Stadtholder  of  Holland  and  Zealand 
when  he  was  but  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
and  commander  of  the  army  of  the  Nether- 
lands the  following  year,  and  when  in  that 
year  Charles  took  leave  of  the  Netherlands, 
after  his  abdication,  it  was  upon  the  shoulder 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange  that  he  leaned  at  the 
public  ceremony. 

William  at  that  time  is  described  by  Motley 
as  a  tall  and  handsome  youth,  with  dark 
brown  hair  and  eyes.  His  portraits  show  him 
to  have  had  a  lofty,  spacious  brow,  regular 
features,  with  a  look  of  wisdom  and  a  mouth 
expressing  great  firmness.  His  face  a  little 
later  was  deeply  marked  with  the  lines  of  care 
and  thought,  and  wistful  anxiety  filled  the 
eyes.  Later  on  a  certain  paternal  kindness 
characterizes  his  look.  The  word  "  silent  " 
was  applied  to  him,  not  because  he  was  re- 
served or  taciturn  in  manner,  but  because  of 
the  discretion  and  judgment  which  distin- 
guished him.  He  was  of  athletic  build,  with 
great  powers  of  endurance,  fond  of  active 
sports,  with  a  cheerful  disposition,  easy  good 
humor,  and  polished,  affable  manners,  which, 
together  with  his  sprightly  wit  and  extraor- 
dinary abilities,  made  him  the  favorite  of 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT.  167 

every  court  in  Europe.  He  was  descended 
from  an  ancient  family  of  sovereign  rank, 
brought  up  at  the  imperial  court,  as  the  cus- 
tom was  for  great  nobles  of  the  empire,  and 
his  superior  talents  and  trustworthy  char- 
acter greatly  endeared  him  to  Charles  V., 
who  had  a  genius  for  discovering  talent  and 
estimating  men. 

When  William  was  but  a  youth  Charles  had 
recognized  his  promise  and  in  his  twentieth 
year  had  employed  him  in  diplomatic  missions 
of  importance,  and  even  of  great  difficulty 
and  delicacy.  It  was  William  that  the  Em- 
peror selected  when  he  abdicated  the  empire 
to  be  the  bearer  of  the  imperial  insignia  to  his 
brother,  who  was  his  successor  in  the  im- 
perial dignity.  It  was  William  who  secured 
for  Philip,  after  his  first  war,  which  was  with 
Henry  II.  of  France,  a  favorable  treaty  with 
that  monarch,  with  whom  he  was  an  especial 
favorite,  and  he  remained  for  a  time  at  the 
court  of  France  as  a  pledge  of  Philip's  good 
faith  in  keeping  the  terms  of  the  peace. 

One  day,  while  hunting  with  the  King  in 
the  forest  of  Fontainebleau,  his  royal  host  dis- 
closed to  the  young  prince  a  secret  compact 
into  which  he  and  Philip  had  entered,  for  the 
extermination  of  heresy  within  their  realms, 
a  measure  which  involved  the  wholesale 


i68 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


slaughter  of  all  their  Protestant  subjects. 
William  was  at  that  time  a  gay  young  prince, 
not  deeply  interested  in  religion.  Like  all 
the  young  nobles  of  his  time,  his  only  serious 
interest  was  in  politics  and  military  affairs, 
employments  for  which  his  talents  and  train- 
ing eminently  fitted  him.  But  apart  from 
these  his  chief  pursuit  was  pleasure.  Hunt- 
ing and  the  banquet  were  his  pastimes.  He 
maintained  upon  his  estates  in  Nassau  and  at 
his  palace  in  Brussels  a  perfectly  regal  state, 
unequaled  by  any  of  the  great  nobles,  an< 
surpassed  only  by  members  of  the  imperial 
and  royal  households.  He  kept  open  house 
the  year  round.  His  great  hall  was  always 
open,  and  relays  of  cooks  furnished  forth  the 
richly  laden  tables.  Motley  is  authority  for 
the  statement  that  cooks  were  trained  in  his 
kitchens  for  royal  cuisines;  and  his  stables 
and  kennels  were  the  envy  of  many  a  crowned 
head. 

In  so  far  as  he  was  religious  at  this  time,  he 
was  a  Romanist.  His  parents  were  Protes- 
tant, but  he  had  been  brought  up  a  Romanist 
at  the  court  of  Charles  V.,  and  might  naturally 
be  expected  to  sympathize  with  the  policy 
of  Protestant  extermination  unfolded  to  him 
by  Henry  II.  But,  pleasure-loving  and  luxu- 
rious and  irreligious  man  of  the  world  though 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT.  169 

he  was,  he  was  yet  a  man  of  high  character 
and  humane  sentiments,  and  he  was  horrified 
by  the  deep  perfidy  and  satanic  cruelty  which 
the  compact  of  the  kings  implied.  It  was  ut- 
terly in  violation  of  all  the  edicts  which  se- 
cured the  rights  of  Protestants. 

He  kept  his  own  counsel  at  the  time,  but 
registered  an  oath  that  he  would  do  what  he 
could  to  thwart  the  nefarious  project.  He 
saw  clearly  that  it  was  aimed  chiefly  at  the 
Netherlands,  and  that  upon  them  its  worst 
consequences  were  bound  to  fall,  and  he  de- 
termined to  do  what  he  could  to  "  drive  the 
Spanish  vermin  "  from  what  he  regarded  as 
his  own  land. 

Two  things  soon  made  it  clear  to  William 
that  Philip  had  launched  his  policy  of  exter- 
mination. The  means  essential  to  its  accom- 
plishment were,  first,  an  increased  body  of  re- 
liable troops,  and,  second,  a  numerous  and 
well-organized  body  of  clergy,  devoted  to  the 
work  of  the  Inquisition.  Neither  of  these 
could  be  legally  secured  without  the  consent  of 
the  States  General.  Philip,  however,  was  not 
a  man  to  be  deterred  from  anything  upon 
which  he  had  set  his  heart  by  so  small  a  mat- 
ter as  a  question  of  law.  He  ordered  the 
troops  at  the  close  of  the  war  with  France 
to  take  up  their  quarters  in  the  Netherlands, 


1 70  STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

and  quieted  the  fears  of  the  people  by  ex- 
plaining that  it  was  only  a  temporary  meas- 
ure, and  assured  them  that  they  would  soon 
be  recalled.  But  as  month  after  month  passed 
and  he  failed  to  keep  his  promise,  popular 
outbreaks  occurred,  which  increased  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  regent,  Margaret  of  Parma, 
was  compelled  to  find  a  pretext  for  sending 
the  soldiers  away. 

The  second  necessity  was  the  increase  of 
the  clergy  in  connection  with  the  Inquisition. 
There  had  never  been  but  four  bishops  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  the  laws  forbade  an  increase 
of  the  number  of  the  clergy  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  States  General.  Philip  appointed 
twelve  new  bishops,  with  the  requisite  number 
of  clergy,  and  clothed  them  with  inquisitional 
power.  The  only  explanation  he  deigned  to 
give  was  that  heresy  was  so  rapidly  increasing 
that  they  were  necessary  to  deal  with  it. 

Already  thousands  of  persons  had  suffered 
by  the  Inquisition  in  the  Netherlands.  Philip 
himself  had  declined  to  change  it,  when  Gran- 
velle requested  that  its  severities  bedecreased, 
because,  he  said,  it  was  already  more  severe 
than  that  of  Spain;  and  the  Queen  of  Hun- 
gary, who  was  regent  when  Charles  V.  issued 
his  edict  establishing  it,  found  it  necessary 
to  make  a  long  journey  in  order  to  personally 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE    SILENT.  171 

remonstrate  with  him  against  its  inhuman 
cruelty. 

Even  the  Roman  Catholics  of  the  Nether- 
lands were  horrified  at  the  sufferings  of  their 
Protestant  brethren.  The  nobles  were  all 
Romanists,  and  the  three  chief  among  them, 
Orange,  Egmont  and  Horn,  were  unalterably 
opposed  to  the  policy  of  the  government. 
They  were  men  of  humane  sentiments  and, 
unlike  the  Spaniard,  did  not  enjoy  the  sight 
of  human  agony.  But  Philip  was  obdurate, 
and  the  work  of  death  began  in  earnest. 

It  now  became  evident  to  the  people  of  the 
Netherlands  that  they  were  dealing  with  a 
false  tyrant,  to  whom  oaths  and  pledges,  laws 
and  obligations,  meant  nothing.  The  whole 
story  as  it  now  runs  from  1560  is  a  sickening 
mass  of  duplicity,  fraud,  lies,  treachery  and 
unbridled  ferocity,  coupled  with  a  wily, 
stealthy,  panther-like  cunning  and  malicious 
satisfaction  in  human  suffering  and  a  people's 
ruin,  unexampled  in  history.  The  regent, 
Margaret  of  Parma,  and  Cardinal  Granvelle, 
her  chief  adviser,  took  a  diabolical  pleasure 
in  playing  into  Philip's  hand  against  each 
other,  and  both  together  against  the  people 
of  the  country  they  pretended  to  rule,  and 
Philip  gloats  over  the  discomfort  and  sus- 
pense of  both,  and  makes  fair  promises  which 


172 


STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


he  never  means  to  fulfil,  in  order  to  keep  them 
both  quiet  and  faithful  in  their  work  of  de- 
struction, until  he  shall  see  fit  to  supplant 
them  by  a  more  energetic  and  terrible  instru- 
ment of  his  deadly  purpose.  We  now  know 
that  Philip  is  responsible  for  the  whole  catas- 
trophe. The  publication  of  the  Spanish 
archives  during  the  last  fifty  years  has  re- 
vealed the  fact  that  the  whole  nefarious 
scheme  for  the  extermination  of  a  nation — the 
most  peaceable,  law-abiding,  intelligent, 
loyal  and  prosperous  of  all  his  subjects — must 
rest  with  Philip  alone.  There  at  his  desk, 
where  he  spent  most  of  his  time  and  carried 
on  his  senseless,  unsteady,  fatal  but  persistent 
and  dogged  office  administration,  he  hatched 
his  dark  projects  and  directed  their  execution, 
without  a  minister,  counselor  or  adviser  of 
any  sort.  Neither  Granvelle  nor  Alva  were 
anything  more  than  the  pawns  in  the  hand  of 
the  master  on  the  chessboard  of  his  game 
of  ruin  and  desolation.  He  had  a  fatal  genius 
for  blundering,  and  it  does  not  appear  that 
he  had  any  genius  in  any  other  direction. 
Born  to  rule  according  to  the  accident  of 
birth,  he  was  born  to  ruin  according  to  the 
eternal  law  of  incompetency,  stupidity  and 
brutish  obstinacy.  He  could  not  recognize 
the  inevitable.  He  lacked  the  wisdom  which 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT.  173 

Carlyle  indicated  in  his  famous  retort.  When 
it  was  reported  to  the  Sage  of  Chelsea  that 
Margaret  Fuller  accepted  the  universe,  he  re- 
plied, "Gad,  she'd  better!" 

The  cruel  edict  of  Charles  V.  was  revived, 
and  it  ran  as  follows :  "  All  persons  are  for- 
bidden to  print,  copy,  multiply,  have,  buy,  sell 
or  give  away  any  work  of  any  heretic."  No 
indignity  or  lack  of  reverence  might  be  shown 
to  any  image  of  the  Virgin  or  saints.  It  was 
forbidden  to  attend  any  heretical  gathering 
of  any  sort;  to  read  the  Scriptures,  or  take 
any  part  in  or  be  present  at  any  discussion  of 
them ;  and  all  under  pain  of  a  variety  of  bar- 
barous punishments.  All  miscreants  called 
heretics  were  to  be  put  to  death.  If  they  re- 
canted, the  men  were  to  die  by  the  sword, 
the  women  to  be  buried  alive;  if  obdurate, 
they  were  all  to  be  burned  alive  after  tor- 
ture. Any  persons  who  had  any  dealings 
with  heretics  or  even  omitted  to  accuse 
others  of  heresy  were  to  be  regarded 
as  heretics  themselves  and  treated  accord- 
ingly. Persons  who  were  accused  of  heresy, 
but  against  whom  nothing  could  be  proven, 
might  escape  with  their  lives  if  they  abjured 
such  heresy ;  but  they  lost  their  property,  and 
if  accused  a  second  time,  their  lives  also.  An 
informer  against  any  who  were  convicted  of 


174          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

heresy  was  rewarded  by  a  large  percentage 
of  the  confiscated  property. 

None  but  a  nation  of  slaves  could  ever  be 
expected  to  submit  to  such  barbarities. 
Charles  V.  knew  better  than  to  rigidly  en- 
force them,  and  for  years  they  had  been  in 
abeyance;  yet  50,000  persons  perished  under 
them  in  his  long  reign  of  forty-five  years,  and 
thousands  of  those  who  could  left  the  country 
under  his  comparatively  mild  rule.  But  when 
it  was  seen  that  Philip  meant  rigidly  to  en- 
force these  edicts,  the  irritation  and  distrust 
which  they  had  always  occasioned  became 
greatly  aggravated  and  inflamed.  Factories 
began  to  close,  industries  to  languish;  for- 
eign merchants  closed  their  offices,  and  all 
who  could  prepared  to  leave  the  country,  and 
insurrections  broke  out.  A  grim  determina- 
tion gradually  settled  upon  the  people  to  re- 
sist the  monster  who  had  now  usurped  all 
their  liberties  and  abolished  even  their  name 
and  form. 

They  first  sent  Egmont  to  Madrid  to  pre- 
sent their  grievances  to  the  king  and  pray  for 
redress,  since  all  their  complaints  to  the  re- 
gent had  resulted  only  in  increased  severities. 
The  king  promised  redress  and  sent  Egmont 
home  in  high  spirits.  The  same  day  he  wrote 
to  the  Pope  of  his  purpose  to  enforce  the 


; 


HOLLAND WILLIAM   THE   SILENT.  175 


edicts  more  rigidly  than  ever,  and  sent  a  dis- 
patch to  the  regent  to  redouble  her  severities. 

The  national  rejoicing  which  met  Egmont 
on  his  return  was  soon  turned  into  mourning 
by  the  execution  of  an  unusual  number  of  the 
harshest  decrees  with  unusual  severities. 

Orange  had  watched  all  these  proceedings 
with  the  eye  of  a  statesman  and  the  discern- 
ment of  a  prophet.  He  had  long  known  the 
designs  of  Philip,  and  he  knew  his  character 
better  than  any  other  man  in  Europe.  He 
had  sought  to  dissuade  Egmont  and  the  peo- 
ple from  a  mission  to  Madrid,  in  which  they 
had  been  duped  and  humiliated,  and  when 
that  failed  he  warned  them  explicity  of  their 
danger.  It  is  said  that  Egmont  mocked  him 
for  his  fears,  and  parted  from  him  with  the 
words,  "  Adieu,  my  prince  without  a  heart," 
to  which  Orange  replied,  "  Adieu,  my  count 
without  a  head."  Within  six  months  of  that 
time  the  count's  head  had  rolled  from  the 
block.  Than  him  the  king  had  no  more  de- 
voted, faithful  and  brave  subject. 

One  day,  when  the  edicts  were  under  dis- 
cussion at  the  council  board,  Orange  rose  and 
delivered  such  a  speech  against  the  enormities 
of  the  government  as  caused  the  president 
of  the  council,  one  of  the  king's  tools,  a  stroke 
of  apoplexy,  which  came  near  terminating  the 


i76 


STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


caitiff's  life.  The  country  now  broke  out  11 
open  revolt.  The  nobles  forsook  the  govern- 
ment and  made  common  cause  with  the  peo- 
ple. About  five  hundred  young  nobles  en- 
tered into  a  compact  to  resist  the  devil  that 
was  working  the  destruction  of  their  country. 
They  made  a  demonstration  and  marched  to 
the  palace  to  present  their  grievances.  The 
regent,  panic-stricken  and  helpless,  turned  to 
her  minister  for  advice,  and  he  remarked  that 
he  would  "  kick  the  beggars  downstairs." 
The  gay  young  bloods  caught  at  the  term 
"  beggars/'  and  forthwith  adopted  it  as  a  title 
of  their  union,  and  with  the  beggar's  pouch 
and  bowl  for  their  sign,  put  themselves  at  the 
head  of  the  people.  They  placed  a  fleet  upon 
the  seas  which  soon  became  terrible  under 
the  name  "  Sea  Beggars." 

The  printing  presses  were  set  at  work,  and 
floods  of  tracts  and  pamphlets  were  issued, 
before  which  all  the  vigilance  and  censorship 
of  the  government  were  helpless.  The  people 
massed  themselves  in  bodies  ten  and  twenty 
thousand  strong,  and  marched  out  into  the 
fields,  forming  into  solid  squares,  with  the 
women  and  children  and  aged  ones  within, 
surrounded  by  the  able-bodied  men,  armed 
with  pitchforks,  scythes,  axes,  clubs  and  fire- 
arms, and  whatever  else  could  serve  as  a 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT.  177 

weapon  to  a  desperate  and  determined  man. 
In  the  center  stood  the  ministers.  And  thus 
drawn  up  in  battle  array  the  gospel  was 
preached,  the  Scriptures  were  read  and  ex- 
pounded, prayers  were  offered,  psalms  sung, 
baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  were  adminis- 
tered, and  the  ceremony  of  marriage  was  per- 
formed, according  to  the  simple  rites  of  the 
Protestant  faith,  edicts  or  no  edicts,  Inquisi- 
tion or  no  Inquisition. 

They  presented  so  formidable  an  array  that 
even  the  armed  hosts  did  not  offer  to  attack 
them,  and  the  government,  under  Orange's 
persuasion,  was  compelled  to  withdraw  its  op- 
position to  the  field-preaching. 

The  Catholic  clergy,  however,  were  not 
willing  that  the  Protestants  should  be  per- 
mitted to  defy  the  edicts,  even  though  now 
they  could  not  be  enforced;  so  they  made  a 
senseless  and  pompous  display  of  themselves 
in  the  streets  of  Antwerp,  which  acted  upon 
the  people  like  a  flame  of  fire  to  a  train  of 
gunpowder,  and  caused  a  national  explosion. 

Hitherto  the  Protestant  outbursts  had  been 
peaceable,  and  only  in  the  form  of  protest  and 
demonstration;  but  now  the  unruly  members 
and  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort  among 
them  broke  loose  and  raged  in  their  fury 
against  the  foe  that  had  at  last  overstepped 


178          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

the  bounds  of  endurance.  Goaded  to  despera- 
tion, the  Protestants  arose.  They  invaded 
the  cathedral  at  Antwerp  and  devastated  it 
like  a  whirlwind.  All  its  beautiful  painted 
glass,  its  splendid  images  and  pictures,  its 
gold  and  silver  and  ivory  statues,  vessels  and 
ornaments,  glittering  with  jewels,  were 
strewed  a  formless  mass  of  rubbish  upon  the 
floor,  and  no  man  deigned  to  stoop  and  pick 
one  up.  The  fury  spread  like  wild  fire  over 
the  country,  and  in  a  single  province  four 
hundred  churches  were  stripped  and  all  their 
images  demolished;  but  no  personal  violence 
was  offered,  nor  was  there  any  complaint  of 
theft. 

Thoroughly  frightened  by  this  universal 
uprising,  the  regent  granted  Orange's  request 
to  check  the  Inquisition  in  return  for  his 
promise  to  quell  the  insurrection.  His  in- 
fluence with  the  "  Beggars,"  as  they  were 
called,  and  his  power  over  the  mob,  put  down 
the  disturbance,  and  the  leaders  agreed  to 
keep  the  peace  as  long  as  the  regent  kept  her 
promise.  But  Philip  was  filled  with  bound- 
less rage  when  he  heard  of  it,  and  resolved 
upon  summary  vengeance  upon  all  concerned. 
His  plan  involved  the  deposing  of  the  regent, 
the  removal  of  the  Council  of  State,  the  be- 
heading of  all  the  nobles,  the  confiscation 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT.  179 

of  all  their  property,  and  the  indiscriminate 
slaughter  of  the  people.  And  the  third  act  in 
the  dark  tragedy  was  begun. 

The  man  selected  to  execute  this  mild  and 
gentle  policy  of  the  clement  king  of  Spain 
was  no  less  a  person  than  the  now  notorious 
Duke  of  Alva.  He  was  in  Italy  at  the  time, 
at  the  head  of  veteran  troops,  himself  Spain's 
most  famous  general.  His  subsequent  career, 
however,  deserves  no  especial  mention  in  his- 
tory except  for  the  odium  with  which  he 
covered  himself  by  the  manner  in  which  he 
played  out  his  part  in  the  tragedy  of  the  Neth- 
erlands. He  was  at  one  time  estimated  to  be 
the  greatest  of  Spanish  soldiers,  but  it  now 
seems  clear  that  Charles  V.'s  estimate  of  him 
is  correct:  that  he  was  competent  to  com- 
mand only  small  bodies  of  men  in  positions 
where  military  skill  was  not  required.  When 
he  came  to  contend  with  skilful  generals,  he 
either  declined  to  give  battle  or  suffered  de- 
feat. With  all  his  veteran  troops,  which 
greatly  outnumbered  the  largest  army  of 
mercenaries  and  raw  recruits  that  Orange 
was  ever  able  to  put  in  the  field,  he  could  not 
stand  before  the  prince  or  his  brothers  Louis 

kr  Henry. 
In  personal  appearance  he  was  tall,  thin 
nd  angular ;  his  head  was  small,  his  face  long, 


l8o          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

slender  and  sallow ;  his  eyes  were  small,  badly 
set,  flittering  and  restless,  with  a  cold,  steel- 
like  glare. 

In  the  position  of  ruler  he  did  not  mani- 
fest any  of  the  qualities  of  rulership,  but  only 
those  of  a  robber  and  murderer.  His  regency 
of  the  Netherlands  can  be  described  only  as 
one  long  series  of  massacres  and  extortions. 
His  senseless  arrogance  and  inordinate  van- 
ity gave  expression  to  itself  in  a  statue  of  him- 
self which  he  had  set  up  in  Brussels,  in  which 
he  was  represented  standing  with  each  foot 
upon  the  neck  of  a  prostrate  human  form,  the 
victims  representing  the  crushed  estates  of  the 
Netherlands.  He  was  a  man  of  narrow  intel- 
lect, boundless  rapacity,  and  a  heart  of  stone, 
incapable  of  constructive  or  fostering  meas- 
ures, but  capable  of  a  reckless  ferocity  in  de- 
struction and  a  savage  delight  in  pillage  sel- 
dom or  never  equalled  in  the  annals  of  civil- 
ized warfare.  And  in  all  this  he  was  only  the 
tool,  the  exact  counterpart,  of  his  master, 
Philip  II. 

When  he  arrived  in  the  Netherlands  at 
the  head  of  20,000  veteran  troops,  in  August, 
1567,  the  country  had  been  quiet  for  almost 
a  year,  and  the  people  had  regained  heart 
and  returned  to  their  regular  employments. 
Signs  of  prosperity  once  more  appeared  and 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT. 


181 


restoration  of  confidence  was  seen  in  the  re- 
newal of  business.  But  with  Alva's  coming 
a  pall  fell  over  the  land.  Orange  resigned  all 
his  offices  and  betook  himself  to  his  estates 
in  Nassau,  saying  as  he  did  so  to  a  friend, 
"  The  most  extraordinary  tragedy  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen  is  now  about  to  begin." 

The  character  and  policy  of  the  man  were 
at  once  apparent.  He  came  armed  with  ex- 
plicit instructions  to  turn  the  property  of  the 
country  into  the  royal  treasury  and  to  exter- 
minate the  people.  The  laws  were  at  once 
suspended,  the  courts  were  closed,  a  council 
was  established,  which  earned  for  itself  the 
title  of  "  The  Council  of  Blood,"  and  eighteen 
hundred  persons  were  sent  to  the  block  in 
three  months.  The  country  was  under  mili- 
tary rule,  and  literally  held  down  by  large 
bodies  of  Spanish  troops,  which  were  being 
constantly  reinforced. 

Alva  boasted  that  he  was  sending  a  stream 
of  gold  into  Spain  "  fathoms  deep,"  and  the 
work  of  burying  and  burning  alive  was  going 
merrily  on.  The  Council  of  Blood,  with  Alva 
at  its  head,  sat  from  eight  to  twelve  hours  a 
day  for  the  sole  purpose  of  trying  capital 
cases,  and  although  the  headsmen  in  every 
town  were  busy  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  the 
prisons  were  overcrowded.  It  soon  became 


I $2          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

too  arduous  a  task  to  keep  up  the  appearance 
of  trials  and  that  needless  formality  was  dis- 
pensed with,  as  was  also  the  irksome  courtesy 
of  arresting  persons  on  legal  process.  The 
seine  was  thrown  and  they  were  gathered  in 
by  scores  and  hundreds.  As  many  as  five  hun- 
dred were  taken  at  one  time  and  marched  to 
the  block,  the  ditch  or  the  stake,  as  fast  as 
room  could  be  made  for  them,  without  the 
preliminary  precaution  to  ascertain  who  were 
Romanists  and  who  Protestants. 

Horrible  as  it  is  to  relate,  and  incredible 
as  it  may  appear,  this  is  Alva's  own  descrip- 
tion of  the  work  of  death  to  his  master,  and 
it  went  on  for  more  than  five  years.  Alva 
boasted  that  he  had  put  to  death  in  that  time 
twenty  thousand  persons  by  judicial  pro- 
cedure alone. 

The  first  check  he  received  was  from 
William's  brother  Louis,  who  invaded  the 
North  with  a  small  army  of  mercenaries,  and 
by  a  fortunate  division  afforded  a  happy  relief 
to  the  stricken  country,  upon  which  the 
blight  of  death  had  now  fallen.  He  called  off 
the  bloody  monster  from  his  favorite  sport  of 
slaughtering  unarmed  citizens  and  hanging 
merchants  up  before  their  shop  doors  to  the 
necessity  of  taking  the  field  and  defending 
himself  with  arms.  But  before  he  set  out, 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE    SILENT.  183 

Alva  made  good  his  title  in  history  to  being 
the  most  senseless  tyrant  that  has  ever  under- 
taken the  work  of  ruining  a  people.  He 
adopted  the  policy  of  cutting  off  the  heads  of 
all  the  probable  leaders  of  the  people  in  the 
towns,  and  issued  an  edict  that  only  those 
persons  were  to  be  exempt  from  death  against 
whom  nothing  had  yet  been  charged,  pro- 
vided they  made  haste  to  conciliate  the  gov- 
ernment and  received  absolution  from  the 
Church.  He  followed  it  up  with  another, 
which  condemned  to  death  indiscriminately. 

Spain  has  been  remarkable  for  the  number 
and  variety  of  human  monsters  she  has  pro- 
duced, both  in  ancient  and  in  modern  times. 
But  after  Philip  II.  himself  and  Torquemada, 
it  is  difficult  to  match,  even  in  her  annals,  the 
"  bloodthirsty  hangman  "  of  the  Netherlands. 
A  Dahomey  chief  could  not  be  worse,  and  a 
wild  beast  of  the  jungles  could  not  be  more 
ferocious.  It  was  as  though  he  had  become 
drunk  with  blood  and,  as  if  maddened  by  the 
thirst  it  excited,  a  perfect  frenzy  of  slaughter 
had  seized  him,  so  that  he  could  not  be  pla- 
cated as  long  as  a  possible  victim  of  his  mur- 
derous passion  remained  alive. 

Orange  was  watching  all  this  gorge  of 
blood  from  a  safe  distance,  but  with  the  fires 
of  an  inextinguishable  wrath  burning  in  his 


1 84  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

heart  and  the  lightnings  of  the  day  of  judg- 
ment flaming  from  his  terrible  eyes.  Orange 
had  now  abjured  the  Catholic  faith  and 
openly  espoused  the  Protestant  cause.  He  set 
himself  at  once,  on  the  coming  of  Alva,  to 
use  all  his  vast  influence  for  the  rescue  of  his 
country.  His  estates  were  already  encum- 
bered to  the  extent  of  a  million  florins,  in- 
curred in  the  services  of  Charles  and  Philip. 
Besides  that,  the  richest  part  of  his  posses- 
sions were  in  the  Netherlands,  and  they  were 
now  confiscated  to  the  crown.  But  in  spite 
of  all  that,  he  was  still  very  rich,  and  he  pro- 
ceeded to  mortgage  his  properties  in  order 
to  raise  troops.  He  entered  into  alliances  with 
foreign  Protestant  powers.  He  married  one 
of  Coligny's  daughters,  then  the  most  power- 
ful noble  in  France,  and,  although  but  a  sub- 
ject, able  to  enter  into  treaties  with  foreign 
powers  and  to  declare  war  or  make  peace 
with  his  own  sovereign.  And  when  the  great 
admiral  fell,  on  the  awful  night  of  St.  Barthol- 
omew, William  lost  his  noblest,  most  powerful 
and  most  faithful  friend,  who  was  about  to 
come  to  his  relief  with  fifteen  thousand 
troops,  and  was  left  once  more  to  face  alone 
his  and  Protestantism's  most  relentless  foe. 
But,  in  spite  of  the  loss  of  his  friends  and 
of  his  three  brothers,  all  of  whom  fell  on 


HOLLAND — WILLIAM   THE  SILENT.  185 

the  field  at  the  head  of  their  troops;  in  spite 
of  the  treachery  of  his  allies  and  the  in- 
efficiency of  the  mercenary  troops  they  sent 
him,  the  mighty  heart  of  the  great  prince 
never  failed  him.  Defeat  followed  defeat ;  re- 
volt and  treachery  beset  him  on  every  hand, 
but  he  never  faltered  in  his  determination  to 
drive  the  Spanish  vermin  from  the  land.  His 
son  was  carried  away  captive  from  the  uni- 
versity, and  his  life  held  as  a  threat  over  his 
father.  The  furrows  upon  his  face  deepened, 
the  mouth  set  more  firmly,  and  the  light  of 
his  dark  eyes  burned  deeper  and  flashed  more 
terribly;  but  the  father  sacrificed  his  plate  as 
a  last  resort  and  raised  a  fresh  army. 

In  1570,  Orange  took  the  field  in  person, 
resolved  upon  victory  or  death.  In  order  to 
justify  himself  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  he 
issued  a  proclamation  in  which  he  says :  "  The 
tyrant  will  dye  every  river  and  stream  with 
our  blood  and  hang  the  corpse  of  a  Dutch- 
man on  every  tree  before  he  ceases  to  slake 
his  revenge  and  to  gloat  over  our  miseries. 
If  he  is  too  strong  for  us,  we  are  ready  rather 
to  die  an  honorable  death  than  to  bow  our 
necks  to  the  yoke  and  give  our  country  to 
slavery.  We  are  therefore  prepared,  if  need 
be,  to  set  fire  to  our  houses  and  perish  in  the 
flames,  rather  than  ever  submit  to  the  man- 
dates of  this  bloodthirsty  hangman." 


i86 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


Defeated  again,  he  had  lost  his  land,  his 
retainers  and  his  property.  All  his  hereditary 
estates  were  mortgaged  to  the  last  florin. 
Destitute  of  means,  forsaken  by  his  allies, 
with  his  credit  exhausted,  his  family  broken  up 
and  his  son  a  captive,  his  friends  in  the  Neth- 
erlands besought  him  to  abandon  them  and 
save  himself.  But  William  had  lost  every- 
thing except  his  dauntless  spirit  and  his  faith 
in  the  great  God  in  whose  cause  he  believed 
himself  enlisted.  Disguised  as  a  peasant,  he 
made  his  way  through  the  Spanish  lines,  ad- 
dressed an  appeal  to  the  Protestant  princes, 
and  a  letter  of  encouragement  to  his  own 
people.  Inspired  by  the  example  of  their  in- 
domitable prince,  and  convinced  that  their 
cause  was  the  cause  of  Protestantism  in  Eu- 
rope, the  provinces  of  which  he  had  long  been 
Stadtholder  in  Holland  and  Zealand  resolved 
to  perish  to  a  man  with  William  rather  than 
give  up  the  fight.  They  elected  William 
Stadtholder  and,  under  his  instruction, 
adopted  a  constitution  and  voted  men  and 
money  for  the  war. 

The  death  grapple  was  now  joined  between 
an  impoverished,  heart-broken  and  decimated 
people  and  the  world  power  of  the  age.  A 
struggle  ensued  to  which  history  records  no 
parallel,  and  in  which  Orange  was  to  prove 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE    SILENT.  l8j 

himself  more  than  a  match  for  all  the  com- 
bined powers  of  the  world's  greatest  monarch 
and  potentate.  The  statesmanship,  the  gen- 
eralship and  the  wealth  of  the  age  were  pitted 
against  him.  He  outwitted  the  statesmen, 
circumvented  the  diplomats,  and  discomfited, 
under  arms,  with  vastly  disproportionate 
forces  of  raw  and  mercenary  troops,  the 
greatest  generals  of  the  age,  and  held  them 
all  successfully  at  bay  for  fifteen  years. 

It  was  now  in  vain  that  Philip  tried  concili- 
ation and  poured  his  treasure  like  water  into 
the  Netherlands;  that  he  concentrated  all  his 
forces  there,  and  followed  Alva  by  Parma  and 
him  by  Reguessus  and  him  by  Don  John  of 
Austria.  William  made  use  of  the  swamps 
and  marshes  to  engulf  and  ruin  them  all. 
During  those  fifteen  desperate  years  he  or- 
ganized victory  out  of  defeat,  kept  the  Catho- 
lic powers  from  combining  with  Spain  against 
him,  held  the  Protestant  princes  together  in 
a  forced  and  reluctant  alliance,  and  secured 
from  them  from  time  to  time  grudging  and 
meager  but  timely  help.  And  so  he  fought  his 
way,  inch  by  inch,  through  the  country,  driv- 
ing the  Spaniards  before  him,  until  he  suc- 
ceeded at  last  in  clearing  the  seven  north- 
ern states  from  their  venomous  plague  and 
united  them  together  in  a  federated  republic, 


i88 


STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


known  as  the  "  United  Provinces  of  the 
Netherlands."  The  pacification  of  Ghent  and 
the  union  of  Brussels  secured  the  cooperation 
of  all  seventeen  provinces,  when  he  dictated 
'.erms  of  peace  and  compelled  Philip  to  prom- 
ise religious  liberty  to  the  Netherlands.  And 
it  was  because  he  broke  that  promise  that 
the  war  broke  out  afresh  which  devastated  the 
south  and  laid  it  in  ruins  haunted  by  wild 
beasts  for  a  century,  establishing,  however, 
the  new  Protestant  republic  in  the  North,  to 
which  all  subsequent  federated  republics  are 
more  or  less  indebted,  our  own  not  the  least 
of  them  all.  Orange  was  appointed  hereditary 
Stadtholder  of  this  republic,  and  by  reason  of 
his  great  services  obtained  the  title  of  the 
"  Father  of  his  Country,"  which  he  alone  of 
men  deserves  to  wear  along  with  our  own 
Washington. 

Nothing  can  better  illustrate  the  benefits 
that  attended  those  who  accepted  the  Refor- 
mation and  the  miseries  that  awaited  those 
peoples  who  rejected  it  than  the  subsequent 
history  of  these  two  sections  of  the  Nether- 
lands. The  north  went  on  to  increasing  pros- 
perity and  the  south  to  increasing  wretched- 
ness and  misery,  and  although  the  north  after- 
wards rescued  the  south  from  its  degradation, 
it  is  still  far  inferior  to  its  northern  neighbor, 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT.  189 

Philip's  reckless  ferocity  had  at  length 
goaded  a  peaceful,  industrious  people  into  a 
nation  of  unconquerable  heroes.  They  placed 
a  fleet  upon  the  sea,  which  harried  the  coast 
and  sailed  all  waters  in  search  for  Spanish 
booty,  and  became  the  terror  of  the  Spanish 
Main.  Alva,  who  had  made  his  boast  on  com- 
ing to  the  country,  "  I,  who  have  tamed  men 
of  iron,  will  soon  manage  this  people  of  but- 
ter," found  it  uncomfortable  to  appear  on  the 
streets.  The  camp  became  a  more  desirable 
dwelling  place  for  him  than  his  palace  at  Brus- 
sels. Everywhere  he  was  met  with  such  looks 
of  hatred  and  scorn,  and  greeted  by  the  de- 
risive cry  of  the  people,  "  Down  with  Alva ! 
Down  with  Alva ! "  that  his  position  became 
intolerable  even  to  him.  He  saw  that  his  part 
of  the  tragedy  was  played  out,  and  found  it 
convenient  to  petition  for  a  recall.  Philip,  as 
his  manner  was,  let  him  slink  out  of  the  coun- 
try in  disgrace. 

A  single  instance  must  suffice  to  show  the 
temper  of  the  people  and  the  spirit  that  ani- 
mated them  in  this  war.  It  is  the  celebrated 
siege  of  Leyden.  The  Spaniards  sat  down 
before  Leyden  in  1574.  Provisions  were  short, 
and  all  attempts  to  relieve  the  city  failed.  At 
last  Orange,  now  ill  from  exhaustion  and 
hardship,  from  his  sick  bed  advised  that  they 


190  STRUGGLE    FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

cut  the  dykes  and  let  in  the  sea.  Three  great 
sea  walls,  the  work  of  generations  through 
centuries,  protected  their  homes  and  their 
harvests,  which  were  just  ripening,  from  the 
sea.  It  was  a  terrible  sacrifice,  but  still  they 
set  themselves  to  the  work  with  a  will.  The 
work  was  difficult,  the  winds  adverse,  and  as 
the  days  lengthened  into  weeks  and  the  weeks 
into  months,  the  suffering  became  indescrib- 
able. Provisions  gave  out,  and  cats,  rats  and 
mice  became  delicacies  and  rarities  at  that. 
Pestilence  broke  out  and  mowed  down  the 
people. 

The  Spaniard  offered  them  favorable  terms 
of  surrender,  but  they  mocked  him  from 
their  walls  and  declared  that  death  by  starva- 
tion or  pestilence  was  preferable  to  Spanish 
clemency.  "  So  long  as  a  mouse  runs  or  a 
cat  mews  within  our  walls,"  said  a  burgomas- 
ter, "  we  will  not  surrender/'  And  yet  again 
one  is  reported  to  have  said,  "  When  there 
are  neither  cats  nor  mice  to  eat,  we  will  eat 
the  flesh  off  our  left  arms  and  with  our  right 
defend  our  women  and  children." 

After  four  months  of  indescribable  suffer- 
ing the  sea  came  in  and  bore  to  their  walls 
the  ships  laden  for  their  relief,  and  the  Span- 
iards fled  for  their  lives.  William  asked  what 
favor  he  should  grant  the  citizens  of  Leyden 


HOLLAND — WILLIAM   THE   SILENT.  191 

for  their  heroic  defense  of  the  city,  and,  starv- 
ing and  impoverished  as  they  were,  they 
asked  for  a  "  university  where  their  sons  might 
be  educated"  and  William  founded  the  Uni- 
versity of  Leyden,  which  stands  to  this  day 
as  a  monument  to  the  courage  and  wisdom 
of  the  city. 

It  was  here  also  that  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
found  refuge  and  a  hospitable  welcome  dur- 
ing the  ten  years  between  their  leaving  Eng- 
land and  sailing  for  America. 

The  long  patience  of  this  phlegmatic  people 
was  now  exhausted.  The  ancient  Frisian 
blood  was  up.  Better  were  it  for  that  man 
who  undertook  to  trifle  with  the  defiant,  pas- 
sionate Dutch  phlegm  when  it  was  roused 
that  he  had  never  been  born.  One  might  as 
well  try  to  fight  an  earthquake  or  a  whirl- 
wind or  a  volcano  in  eruption  as  the  fury  of  a 
long-suffering,  patient,  peace-loving  people 
once  it  is  kindled  for  revolt.  And  so  Spain 
found.  The  resolution  was  now  taken — bet- 
ter a  drowned  country  than  an  enslaved  one 
— and  the  people  stood  ready  to  cut  the  dykes 
if  need  were. 

Not  being  able  to  cope  with  his  great 
enemy  by  lawful  means,  Philip  now  had  re- 
course to  the  last  resort  of  cowards.  He  of- 
fered 25,000  golden  crowns  to  any  one  who 


1 92          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

would  rid  him  of  his  unconquerable  foe,  a 
pardon  for  all  crimes,  and  a  patent  of  nobility. 
Six  attempts  were  made  upon  William's  life, 
and  the  seventh  succeeded,  in  1584.  It  was  a 
story  of  duplicity  and  treachery  to  the  end. 
The  miserable  wretch  who  committed  the 
deed  had  gained  entrance  to  William's  house 
under  pretense  of  being  a  Protestant  refugee, 
seeking  his  protection,  and  it  was  character- 
istic of  Philip  not  to  pay  the  reward  to  the 
heirs  until  he  was  compelled  to,  and  then  in  a 
greatly  reduced  form. 

But  before  he  died  William  had  created  a 
power  that  could  not  be  assassinated,  and 
which  was  gloriously  to  avenge  his  death. 
As  it  were  out  of  the  sea  a  Protestant 
nation  had  arisen,  and  under  his  guidance 
had  taken  a  foremost  place  among  the  na- 
tions. The  persecuted  of  all  lands  found 
shelter  in  its  free  institutions  and  protec- 
tion in  its  strong  right  arm.  They  in  turn 
contributed  their  intelligence  and  skill,  their 
moral  courage  and  spiritual  fervor,  to  aug- 
ment the  strength  of  their  adopted  coun- 
try. There  and  there  alone  on  the  earth  flour- 
ished civil  and  religious  liberty,  like  goodly 
cedars,  and  in  their  peaceful  shade  human 
energy  and  enterprise  found  for  the  first  time 
their  full  scope  and  power.  A  world  power 


HOLLAND WILLIAM    THE   SILENT.  193 

was  fast  growing  up,  against  which  Spain  was 
to  hurl  herself  with  all  her  prodigious  strength 
and  with  no  other  result  than  to  solidify  and 
consolidate  the  new  state  and  dash  herself  to 
pieces. 

William's  son  Maurice  wisely  fostered  the 
institutions  his  father  had  founded,  and  ably 
continued  the  struggle  he  had  begun.  The 
people  increased  their  prosperity,  their 
minds  were  stimulated,  and  their  characters 
purified  by  the  fierce  conflict  they  had  so  long 
been  compelled  to  wage  and  were  still  in  a 
measure  compelled  to  maintain. 

Amsterdam  succeeded  to  the  place  of  first 
importance  among  cities  of  the  world,  and 
became  the  center  of  wealth  and  culture,  of 
art  and  literature,  and  for  two  centuries  held 
the  undisputed  supremacy  in  the  commercial, 
financial  and  political  life  of  the  world.  Her 
town  hall,  built  by  the  burgesses  as  their  pub- 
lic building,  is  now  a  royal  palace  and  one  of 
the  finest  in  Europe,  and  abundantly  attests 
the  wealth  and  magnificence  of  that  city  three 
hundred  years  ago. 

The  army  and  navy  were  so  ably  adminis- 
tered that  the  Netherlands  became  inviolable 
soil.  Her  fleets  destroyed  what  was  left  of 
the  Spanish  navy  after  the  destruction  of  the 
Armada,  prevented  the  formation  of  a  new 


i94 


STRUGGLE    FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


navy,  and  swept  the  Spanish  shipping  from 
the  seas.  Under  Tornx  and  De  Witt,  she  de- 
fied England,  sailed  up  the  Thames  to  Lon- 
don, and  struck  terror  into  the  heart  of  that 
brave  country,  and  then  sublimely  sailed  the 
seas,  like  the  jaunty  little  queen  she  was,  with 
a  broom  at  her  masthead,  in  token  of  her 
absolute  and  undisputed  maritime  supremacy. 
The  Dutch  East  and  West  India  Com- 
panies were  formed,  and  Dutch  ships  carried 
the  commerce  of  the  world.  They  took  pos- 
session of  new  lands  and  carried  Dutch  colo- 
nists and  Dutch  manufactures  to  all  parts  of 
the  world,  and  brought  back  to  the  Nether- 
lands the  choicest  products  of  all  lands.  They 
broke  the  power  and  humbled  the  pride  of 
Spain  to  such  an  extent  that  she  was  never 
able  to  recover  from  the  blow.  Philip  was 
brought  to  bankruptcy.  He  repudiated  his 
debts  at  the  last,  and  a  collection  was  taken 
for  him  from  house  to  house  in  his  impover- 
ished country  to  defray  his  personal  expenses. 
Spain  was  ruined,  her  best  sons  sacrificed,  and 
her  resources  exhausted  by  the  most  sense- 
less devotion  to  a  blind  passion  that  ever  in- 
fatuated the  empty  head  of  an  unreasoning 
despot. 


LECTURE   VI. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY GENERAL 

CONCLUSION — THE    PRACTICAL   GAINS   FROM 
THE    REFORMATION    TO   THE   WORLD. 

In  the  previous  lectures  on  the  general  sub- 
ject of  the  Reformation,  we  have  traced, 
briefly  and  hastily,  the  course  of  the  great 
struggle  for  religious  liberty.  This  general 
review  was  of  necessity  confined  to  historical 
events.  It  was  impossible  to  dwell  upon  the 
principles  which  underlay  them  or  to  describe 
the  results  that  flowed  from  them,  except  in 
a  local  and  particular  way.  It  must  have  been 
evident  to  you  all  that  here  was  a  very 
serious  and  grave  omission.  No  movement 
great  enough  to  cover  all  Europe,  vital 
enough  to  continue  over  a  period  of  two  hun- 
dred years,  powerful  enough  to  convulse 
every  European  nation,  and  pervasive  enough 
to  affect  equally  politics  and  religion,  could 
possibly  have  sprung  from  purely  local  causes 
or  have  left  behind  it  purely  local  results. 

It  is  my  purpose  this  evening  to  speak  of 
some  of  the  practical  results  of  the  Reforma- 


196  STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

tion  as  it  affected  the  world  at  large  and  made 
permanent  contributions  to  the  welfare  of 
mankind.  We  are  not  only  justified  in  such 
an  inquiry,  but  we  are  impelled  to  it  by  the 
thought  of  the  prodigious  sacrifices  which 
alone  made  the  Reformation  possible.  The 
incalculable  cost  in  suffering  and  in  human 
life  of  that  great  struggle  which  reduced  pop- 
ulous regions  to  howling  wildernesses,  as  in 
Bohemia,  Hungary  and  Belgium,  and  in- 
flicted upon  a  country  like  Germany  physical 
injuries,  as  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and 
upon  France  moral  wrongs,  as  in  the  Mas- 
sacre of  St.  Bartholomew,  from  which  these 
countries  have  not  yet  recovered,  forces  upon 
us  the  query — cui  bonof  to  what  purpose  all 
this  waste  and  suffering?  What  has  it  done 
for  the  world?  Any  success  secured  at  such 
incalculable  cost,  as  in  Bohemia,  for  example, 
where  the  population  was  reduced  from 
4,000,000  to  80,000  in  thirty  years,  must  dis- 
close within  itself  some  permanent  visible  re- 
sults in  order  to  justify  that  outlay. 

In  order  rightly  to  estimate  those  results, 
we  must  go  back  to  the  condition  of  things 
before  the  struggle  began,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  was  the  only  church  in  Eu- 
rope, excepting  in  Russia,  which  was  then  an 


GAINS   FROM   THE   REFORMATION.  197 

insignificant  and  unimportant  semi-barbarous 
state,  which  for  all  practical  purposes  may  be 
entirely  ignored.  Two  great  powers  divided 
the  world  between  them,  but  professed  to  rule 
it  in  conjunction — the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  day 
had  long  passed  when  the  spiritual  preroga- 
tives of  the  Church  served  as  a  check  to 
the  tyranny  of  the  temporal  powers.  The 
Church  and  the  temporal  powers  were  now 
either  united  or  divided,  as  the  interests  of 
one  or  the  other  dictated,  for  the  purpose  of 
maintaining  their  own  supremacy  and  the  more 
completely  subjecting  the  common  peoples. 
Absolutism  in  the  State  was  fast  usurping  and 
destroying  the  ancient  rights  and  liberties  of 
the  peoples,  and  ecclesiastical  domination  was 
stamping  out  the  last  vestige  of  intellectual 
freedom  and  moral  liberty.  The  rulers  had 
played  into  the  hands  of  the  priests  to  secure 
political  despotism,  and  the  priests  had  in  turn 
played  into  the  hands  of  the  rulers  to  estab- 
lish ecclesiastical  tyranny,  and  the  people  were 
between  them  as  between  the  devil  and  the 
deep  sea.  They  were  robbed  by  the  Church 
and  beaten  by  their  rulers  and  left  half  dead. 
They  were  ground  to  powder  between  the 
upper  and  the  nether  millstones. 

As  a  result,  darkness  and  desolation  reigned 


198          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

supreme.  The  revival  of  learning  illuminated 
for  a  time  the  higher  walks  of  life,  but  left 
the  great  body  of  the  people  in  a  darkness 
deepened  by  the  contrast.  None  of  the  ameli- 
orating effect,  either  of  the  Renaissance  or  of 
the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  reached  to 
the  great  mass  of  the  common  people.  They 
were  ignorant,  and  no  attempt  was  made  to 
teach  them.  They  were  degraded,  and  no 
hand  was  reached  out  to  uplift  them.  They 
were  wretched  and  miserable,  but  no  effort 
was  made  to  relieve  their  distress.  On  the 
contrary,  their  utter  helplessness  invited  fresh 
assaults  upon  their  liberties  and  renewed  ef- 
forts to  increase  the  burdens  under  which  they 
groaned,  and  to  rivet  more  rigidly  the  yoke 
which  galled  them. 

In  that  century  Pope  Pius  II.  made  a  jour- 
ney to  Britain,  and  he  describes  the  condition 
of  things  as  he  saw  them.  He  says  that  the 
peasants  (and  nine-tenths  of  the  people  were 
peasants)  lived  in  houses  of  stones  piled  up 
without  cement,  the  conical  roofs  of  which  were 
secured  against  the  weather  by  layers  of  turf. 
There  was  an  opening  at  the  top  for  smoke  to 
escape,  but  no  chimneys  and  no  windows.  A 
low  opening  served  for  a  doorway,  which  was 
closed  at  night,  if  at  all,  by  the  stiffened  skin 
of  an  animal.  The  garments  of  the  common 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION.  199 

people  were  of  the  coarsest  and  rudest  sort, 
made  of  hemp,  and  their  food  consisted  of 
roots  and  herbs  and  a  kind  of  bread  made 
of  wheat.  The  floors  of  their  miserable 
huts  were  of  beaten  earth,  and  they  were 
themselves  the  serfs  of  the  soil.  The  cities 
were,  if  that  were  possible,  worse  off  than 
the  country.  They  consisted  of  a  few  palaces 
built  like  fortresses,  with  blank  walls  to  the 
streets,  and  surrounded  by  collections  of  hu- 
man sties.  The  streets  were  narrow  and  un- 
paved,  without  drainage  or  sidewalks,  the 
dumping  places  of  refuse  from  the  houses  and 
hovels,  and,  unlighted  by  night,  they  were 
the  scenes  of  violence  and  brigandage,  while 
by  day  they  were  filled  with  turmoil  and  con- 
fusion. They  were  the  breeding  places  of 
vice  and  crime,  of  disease  and  pestilence. 
The  common  people  everywhere  were  uni- 
formly ignorant. 

There  were  no  schools  for  them.  Their 
persons  and  labor  belonged  to  the  nobles; 
their  intellects  and  consciences  to  the  priests. 
To  question  the  absurd  and  ridiculous  claims 
of  kings  or  priests  meant  swift  and  certain 
death.  There  was  no  science  to  speak  of. 
Crass  superstition  connected  with  the  relics 
of  the  saints  and  amulets  blessed  by  the  Pope, 
and  the  use  of  holy  water,  consecrated  oils, 


200          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

priestly  anointing  and  incantations,  signs  an< 
miraculous  words,  stood  in  the  place  of  medi- 
cine. Instead  of  chemistry,  there  was  al- 
chemy and  the  black  art;  instead  of  astron- 
omy, astrology.  Religion  had  degenerated 
into  a  gross  and  grovelling  superstition,  in 
which  the  visiting  of  shrines,  the  worship  of 
images,  and  the  relics  of  the  saints — the  do- 
ing of  penances  and  the  purchasing  of  in- 
dulgences, were  the  chief  functions.  Art 
had  degenerated  into  a  fulsome  flattery  of 
the  great  and  powerful,  a  glorification  of 
wanton  princes  and  abandoned  popes  and 
their  panders  and  satellites.  Darkness  cov- 
ered the  earth  and  gross  darkness  the  people. 
Social  bonds  were  relaxed  and  gross  and  ter- 
rible licentiousness  and  besottedness  pre- 
vailed among  all  classes.  A  fatal  mental  and 
moral  lethargy  possessed  the  people.  The 
churches  were  magnificent  specimens  of  art 
and  architecture,  but  they  were  filled  with 
gaudy  shrines  and  grotesque  images  of  the 
saints,  which  were  the  objects  of  superstitious 
romance  on  the  part  of  the  people.  Medi- 
cal science  did  not  exist  in  any  proper  sense, 
as  indeed  no  other  science  did,  and  illness 
/was  regarded  as  a  kind  of  possession  of  the 
devil,  to  be  cured  by  incantations,  magic 
signs  or  influence  of  the  celestial  bodies  or 


GAINS    FROM    THE   REFORMATION.  2OI 

heavenly  spirits,  a  visit  to  the  shrine  of  a 
saint,  or  contact  with  the  relics  of  a  saint. 
Necromancy  held  the  place  that  science  now 
holds.  The  people  were  everywhere  sunk  in 
sloth,  in  ignorance,  in  poverty,  in  filth,  and 
in  crime.  Tyranny  and  oppression  under  the 
sacred  sanctions  of  religion  had  combined  to 
rob  and  oppress  the  people,  and  whoever  had 
the  hardihood  or  dared  to  question  the  divine 
right  of  kings  or  the  divine  authority  of 
priests,  found  himself  the  helpless  and  de- 
fenseless victim  of  both.  The  people  had  no 
rights  that  either  rulers  or  priests  were  bound 
to  respect. 

It  was  then  that  the  voice  of  Luther  broke 
forth  and  rang  like  a  clarion  through  Europe, 
waking  men  out  of  their  long  sleep,  rous- 
ing them  from  their  lethargy  and  inciting 
them  to  break  the  fetters  that  had  so  long 
bound  them,  and  shake  themselves  free  from 
their  ancient  and  hereditary  foes.  The  revival 
of  learning  had  already  run  its  course  and 
spent  its  force.  It  had  stimulated  the  minds 
of  students  and  quickened  an  interest  in 
ancient  culture.  It  had  made  polite  learn- 
ing fashionable,  roused  the  flagging  energies 
of  the  universities  to  renewed  efforts  and 
given  an  impulse  to  more  serious  studies ;  but 
it  had  not  deeply  affected  humanity  as  a  whole 


202 


STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


— a  few  choice  spirits  out  of  the  great  mass  of 
mankind  were  alone  influenced  by  it.  It  had 
wrought  no  amelioration  to  society.  It  did 
not  deal  with  humanity  as  such ;  but  with  an- 
cient learning.  Philosophy  and  belles-lettres 
were  its  chief  subjects.  It  did  not  concern 
itself  with  the  problems  of  the  day,  nor  in- 
terest itself  in  the  state  of  the  common  peo- 
ple. Its  attitude  towards  religion  was  skepti- 
cal, and  towards  life  in  general  satirical  or 
pessimistic.  It  had  no  new  truth  to  disclose 
and  no  new  impulse  to  impart  to  life.  It 
quickened  men's  minds  for  a  time  and  within 
a  limited  range,  and  then  it  left  them. 

But  the  Reformation  which  began  with 
Wyclif  a  hundred  years  before  the  revival 
of  learning,  and  which  came  to  its  maturity 
in  Martin  Luther  after  the  Renaissance  had 
declined,  was  a  popular  movement,  born  of 
the  crying  needs  of  the  people  and  bent  on 
securing  their  good.  It  proceeded  upon  a 
basis  of  learning  and  of  thought;  but  it 
reached  practical  conclusions.  Its  leaders 
were  scholars,  and  after  Erasmus  all  the 
greatest  scholars  of  the  sixteenth  century 
were  enlisted  in  its  success.  But  it  was  not 
primarily  an  intellectual  movement.  It  was 
primarily  a  religious  movement,  and  because 
of  that  it  soon  became  a  moral  movement,  a 


GAINS    FROM    THE    REFORMATION.  203 

social  movement,  a  political  movement,  and 
an  intellectual  movement. 

To  illustrate  what  I  mean,  compare  those 
parts  of  Europe  where  the  Reformation  was 
successful  with  portions  where  it  failed,  and 
remember  that  it  succeeded  in  those  countries 
where  the  revival  cf  learning  had  had  least 
effect,  and  failed  in  those  that  were  its  strong- 
holds. Italy,  France  and  Spain  were  the  chief 
centers  of  intellectual  activity  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  Germany  and  England  were  but 
slightly  affected  by  the  Renaissance,  and  in 
the  south  of  Europe  it  continued  to  hold  its 
sway  for  two  centuries  after  the  intellectual 
life  of  Germany  and  England  had  taken  an 
entirely  new  direction.  And  what  has  been 
the  result?  Contrast  Northern  with  South- 
ern Europe  and  see.  Southern  Europe  was, 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  the  fairest  part  of  the 
earth,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  Nether- 
lands. Northern  Europe  was  rude  and  bar- 
barous. To-day  the  situation  is  exactly  re- 
versed. Southern  Europe  has  declined  in 
civilization,  in  culture,  in  art  and  literature 
and  wealth.  Northern  Europe  has  steadily 
advanced  in  everything  that  makes  for  human 
happiness  and  well-being. 

The  United  Netherlands  rose,  as  it  were, 
out  of  the  sea,  a  Protestant  republic,  in  the 


204          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

midst  of  the  strife  and  feud  of  Roman  domina- 
tion, took  at  once  the  leading  place  in  the 
world's  affairs,  and  became  the  center  of  its  in- 
dustries, its  commerce,  it  finance,  its  literature, 
its  art,  and  its  politics,  while  Spain  descended 
from  the  proud  position  of  the  leadership  of 
nations  to  the  lowest  place  in  the  scale  of  na- 
tional influence.  Germany  has  risen  under 
Protestant  influences  from  being  a  collection 
of  petty  principalities  at  war  with  each  other, 
having  a  sterile  soil  and  proverbial  for  barbar- 
ism, to  the  intellectual  leadership  of  the  world, 
with  a  roll  call  of  great  names  in  scholarship 
unequaled  by  any  other  country  of  the  world, 
and  is  to-day  the  most  united,  prosperous, 
progressive  and  powerful  nation  on  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe.  Once  she  had  worked  her- 
self clear  of  the  rubbish  of  Rome,  England 
forged  to  the  front  and  took  and  long  kept 
the  leadership  in  the  world's  affairs.  Under 
Protestant  leadership,  from  the  days  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  she  has  always  taken  a  position  in 
European  affairs  out  of  all  proportion  with 
the  size  and  importance  of  the  country  itself; 
but  under  Roman  influences  she  has  always 
sunk  down  again  into  insignificance  and  has 
become  a  mere  island  dependency  of  France. 
Says  Macaulay,  "  Whoever,  knowing  what 
Italy  and  Scotland  naturally  are,  and  what 
four  hundred  years  ago  they  actually  were, 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION.  205 

t 

shall  now  compare  the  country  round  Rome 
with  the  country  round  Edinburgh,  will  be 
able  to  form  some  judgment  of  the  tendency 
of  papal  domination.  Whoever  passes  in 
Germany  from  a  Roman  Catholic  to  a  Protes- 
tant principality;  in  Switzerland  from  a  Ro- 
man Catholic  to  a  Protestant  canton;  in  Ire- 
land from  a  Roman  Catholic  to  a  Protestant 
county,  finds  that  he  has  passed  from  a  lower 
to  a  higher  grade  of  civilization.  The  Protes- 
tants of  the  United  States  have  left  far  be- 
hind them  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Mexico, 
Peru  and  Brazil.  The  Roman  Catholics  of 
Lower  Canada  remain  inert,  while  the  whole 
continent  round  them  is  in  a  ferment  of  activ- 
ity and  enterprise.  The  French  have  doubt- 
less shown  an  energy  and  an  intelligence 
which,  even  when  misdirected,  have  justly  en- 
titled them  to  be  called  a  great  people;  but 
this  apparent  exception,  when  examined,  will 
be  found  to  confirm  the  rule,  for  in  no  coun- 
try that  is  called  Roman  Catholic  has  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church,  during  several  genera- 
tions, possessed  so  little  authority  as  in 
France." 

During  all  those  years  a  steady  decay  is 
observable  in  the  Roman  Catholic  countries 
which  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Reformation 
were  the  great  world  powers.  They  are 
seen  to  have  been  afflicted  with  a  kind  of  pro- 


2O6 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


gressive  paralysis  which  pursued  its  irresisti- 
ble course  until  all  the  vital  centers  were  pal- 
sied. Civilization  decayed  in  Spain.  Art 
ceased  to  flourish  in  Italy.  Austria  lost  her 
political  supremacy,  and  France  pressed  on 
her  reckless  course  from  the  Massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew  to  the  French  Revolution  and 
the  Reign  of  Terror. 

These  great  changes  have  been  brought 
about  by  an  entirely  new  conception  of  life. 
It  was  not  only  a  reformation,  but  it  was  a 
revolution  as  well.  It  brought  out  and  pro- 
claimed a  whole  new  set  of  principles  for  hu- 
man life.  Some  of  you  may  think  that  I  go 
too  far  when  I  say  that  the  Christian  ideas 
and  principles  of  life  had  been  ignored  and 
forgotten  for  a  thousand  years,  and  the  an- 
cient pagan  ideas  and  ideals  prevailed  still 
over  Europe.  They  had  been  adopted  by  and 
incorporated  into  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  A  significant  illustration  of  this  fact 
is  seen  at  St.  Peter's,  Rome,  in  the  famous 
statue  of  St.  Peter,  which  is  the  object  of  ro- 
mance and  adoration  to  devout  Catholics  to 
this  day.  It  is  an  ancient  pagan  statue  of 
Jupiter  renamed  for  the  patron  saint  of  Rome. 
It  is  a  good  illustration  of  what  went  on,  not 
only  at  Rome,  but  throughout  Europe  for 
centuries.  The  pagan  temples  were  taken  over 


GAINS    FROM    THE    REFORMATION.  207 

by  the  Christians  and  given  Christian  names; 
the  pagan  idols  became  the  statues  of  Chris- 
tian saints ;  the  pagan  rites  were  rechristened 
into  Christian  names,  as  the  pagans  them- 
selves were,  and  with  them  the  pagan  cus- 
toms, laws  and  ideas.  The  Pope  superseded 
the  Emperor,  St.  Peter,  Jupiter,  St.  Mary,  the 
Magnus  Mater,  the  mass,  the  sacrifice  of  Hec- 
atombs. The  Pope  took  the  title  of  the  priest 
of  Jupiter,  "  Pontifex  Maximus,"  and  based 
his  authority  upon  the  same  principles  of  force 
and  fear.  The  names  of  the  days  of  the  week, 
of  the  months,  of  the  year  and  of  the  great 
Christian  festivals,  as  well  as  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  still  observed,  show  how 
deeply  the  pagan  ideas  were  rooted  in  the 
minds  of  the  people,  how  persistent  they  were, 
and  how  deeply  they  succeeded  in  stamping 
themselves  upon  Roman  Catholicism,  in 
which  the  man  is  made  to  serve  the  institu- 
tion; while  in  the  true  state  the  institution 
is  made  to  serve  the  man.  That  is  the  differ- 
ence between  the  pagan  and  the  Christian 
civilizations.  The  fitting  symbols  of  the  one 
are  the  Inquisition,  the  censorship  of  the 
press,  and  the  Order  of  Jesuits,  three  of  the 
most  diabolical  engines  of  despotism  that 
human  ingenuity  ever  invented.  The  symbols 
of  the  other  are  the  open  Bible  and  the  print- 


208 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


ing  press — the  two  most  effective  agents  of 
human  advancement  known  to  man. 

The  two  ideas  upon  which  ancient  civiliza- 
tions were  established  were  force  and  fear. 
Force  on  the  part  of  the  rulers  and  fear  on 
the  part  of  the  people.  Might  made  right. 
Power  meant  despotism,  and  strength  meant 
the  subjugation  of  the  weak  to  the  strong. 
The  sense  of  personal  or  moral  obligation  did 
not  enter  into  the  structure  of  human  society. 
Government  was  based  upon  the  principle 
that  the  weak  must  serve  the  strong;  that  the 
unfortunate  were  the  legitimate  prey  of  the 
successful,  and  that  government  and  author- 
ity were  the  chief  instruments  for  subjecting 
and  enslaving  the  governed.  The  theory  of 
human  society  that  prevailed  held  that  God 
had  set  up  two  classes  of  persons  to  repre- 
sent Him  on  the  earth — they  were  priests  and 
rulers.  To  the  latter  he  had  given  authority 
over  the  bodies  and  the  lives  of  men,  and  to 
the  former  power  over  their  minds  and  con- 
sciences. To  question  the  authority  of  either 
was  to  question  the  authority  of  God.  It 
was  impious  and  perilous ;  the  audacious  cul- 
prit who  presumed  to  question  the  grounds 
upon  which  such  stupendous  claims  were 
based  found  himself  speedily  under  the  ban 
of  both  Church  and  State,  an  outlaw  among 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION.  209 

men,  his  property  confiscated,  his  life  at  stake, 
with  no  one  willing  to  offer  him  shelter  or 
succor,  to  give  him  food  or  clothing,  to  min- 
ister to  him  in  sickness,  or  defend  him  before 
the  law.  Treated  as  a  wild  beast,  he  was 
hunted  and  hounded  out  of  every  refuge  and 
subjected  to  the  bitterest  persecution  until 
brought  to  bay,  when  he  was  flung  upon  the 
rack  and  crushed  and  mangled  until  the  suf- 
fering body  could  barely  contain  the  spark  of 
life,  when  he  was  given  to  the  flames  or  wild 
beasts. 

To  maintain  society  upon  these  principles, 
two  of  the  most  diabolical  engines  of  oppres- 
sion ever  invented  by  human  ingenuity  were 
established  in  the  Middle  Ages — one  the  In- 
quisition, the  other  the  censorship  of  the  press. 
The  first  was  to  control  the  consciences  of 
men  and  keep  their  moral  sense  subject  to 
the  dictation  of  the  priest;  the  other  was  to 
control  the  intellects  of  men  and  keep  them 
in  subjection  to  the  same  powers.  Their  su- 
preme object  was  to  secure  mental  and  moral 
darkness,  and  cause  both  to  prevail  among 
mankind.  Only  so  could  rulers  hope  to  main- 
tain their  supremacy,  to  preserve  their  privi- 
leges, to  uphold  their  power  over  the  masses 
of  men.  A  more  inhuman  or  satanic  design 
could  not  be  conceived.  The  binding  up  of 


2IO 


STRUGGLE    FOR    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


the  feet  of  little  children  to  prevent  their 
growth,  the  maiming  and  deforming  of  sound 
and  healthy  children  to  make  cripples  of  them 
for  purposes  of  gain,  are  innocent  and  harm- 
less amusements  compared  with  the  atrocity 
of  which  the  Church  and  the  State  of  the 
Middle  Ages  were  guilty  when  they  conspired 
to  stultify  the  intellect  and  dwarf  the  con- 
science of  mankind,  in  order  to  prevent  men 
from  thinking  their  way  out  of  degradation 
and  slavery  to  kings  and  priests  into  intellec- 
tual and  moral  freedom  and  integrity. 

But  nature  is  sincere,  impartial  and  un- 
corruptible, and  works  with  an  unerring  and 
unfailing  certainty.  You  can  no  more  per- 
manently repress  the  intellect  or  conscience 
of  mankind  than  you  can  cement  over  the 
ocean.  The  emissaries  of  the  two  great  insti- 
tutions just  alluded  to,  aided  and  abetted  by 
the  Jesuits,  spread  over  Europe  like  the 
plague  of  locusts,  infested  every  household, 
invaded  the  most  sacred  privacies  of  family 
and  individual  life,  violated  all  the  laws  of 
honor  and  decency,  mastered  all  the  arts 
of  falsehood  and  duplicity,  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  riveting  more  tightly  the  fetters 
of  men  and  rendering  them  a  more  easy 
prey.  Those  who  yielded  to  these  enslavers 
descended  still  deeper  into  the  slough  and 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION.  311 

morass  of  misery  and  wretchedness.  Italy, 
Spain,  Austria  and  France,  having  killed  off 
all  their  Protestants,  yielded  themselves  up 
willing  victims,  and  all  the  world  knows  what 
these  countries  are  to-day.  While  those  who 
fought  the  triple  Nemesis,  fought  their  way 
through  seas  of  blood,  but  to  safe  harbors 
and  habitable  lands. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  in  this  connection  that 
the  term  Protestant  did  not  arise  from  the 
differences  of  doctrine  between  the  Reformers 
and  the  Roman  Catholics,  but  because  of  the 
protest  which  the  Reformers  made  against  an 
act  of  treachery  on  the  part  of  the  Roman- 
ists who  broke  faith  with  them  at  the  Diet  of 
Spires  in  1529.  The  characters  of  the  men  who 
led  the  Romanist  party  stand  in  glaring  con- 
trast with  the  characters  of  the  men  who  led 
the  Protestant  party.  The  difference  in  moral 
character  is  one  of  the  striking  features  of 
the  whole  movement.  The  Protestant  leaders 
were  by  no  means  perfect  men,  but  with  one 
or  two  notable  exceptions,  they  were  men  of 
staunch  moral  character,  unselfish  men,  capa- 
ble of  great  self-sacrifice,  men  who  sunk  their 
personal  interests  in  the  general  good.  The 
effect  of  the  movement,  on  the  whole,  upon 
the  people  at  large  had  that  effect — it  begot 
in  them  a  self-sacrificing  spirit,  a  noble,  gen- 


212          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

erous  spirit.  It  infused  them  with  the  spirit 
of  heroes  and  martyrs.  Calculation  and  self- 
seeking  disappeared  for  the  time,  and  multi- 
tudes identified  themselves  with  the  great 
cause.  But  their  opponents  were  animated 
by  ignoble  and  ungenerous  sentiments  and 
displayed  the  basest  qualities.  Treachery, 
deceit,  duplicity  and  double  dealing  were 
cultivated  and  became  a  fine  art  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  camp.  The  Society  of  the  Jesuits, 
who  were  the  teachers  in  morals  and  the 
leaders  in  persecution,  had  for  their  motto, 
'The  end  justified  the  means/'  and  they 
illustrated  the  doctrine  in  their  practice. 
The  most  sacred  oaths  were  violated;  the 
basest  treacheries  were  perpetrated,  like  the 
Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  for  instance, 
and  the  vilest  crimes  committed  under  cover 
of  hospitality  or  flags  of  truce. 
.  Over  against  the  ideas  of  force  and  fear 
upon  which  the  ancient  regime  was  founded, 
the  Protestant  reformers  set  up  the  opposite 
and  antagonistic  principles  of  individual  re- 
sponsibility and  personal  freedom.  Luther's 
ninety-five  theses  were  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence to  the  sixteenth  century.  His 
doctrine  that  the  just  shall  live  by  faith  was 
the  emancipation  proclamation  of  mankind. 
It  was  the  root  idea  which  blossomed  two 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION.  213 

hundred  and  fifty  years  later  in  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  in  America,  which  as- 
serted the  inalienable  right  of  every  man  to 
life,  to  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
It  was  a  religious  principle  at  the  outset,  but 
it  soon  came  to  have  bearings  on  all  the  rela- 
tions of  life.  For,  if  it  be  true  that  a  man  is 
justified  by  faith  in  God  alone,  then  it  is 
equally  true  that  he  has  no  need  of  the  inter- 
vention of  priests  or  the  rites  of  sacerdotalism 
or  the  services  of  the  hierarchy.  It  was  a 
blow  at  the  most  stupendous  system  of  or- 
ganized religious  tyranny  the  world  had  ever 
seen.  And  with  the  hierarchical  system  went 
also  that  other  doctrine  of  the  Divine  right 
of  kings,  which  was  its  alter  ego,  its  logical 
shadow.  It  soon  became  evident  that  the 
single  principle  of  justification  by  faith  and 
not  by  absolution  from  a  priest  once  estab- 
lished, a  reconstruction  of  society  from  the 
bottom  upwards,  became  inevitable.  The 
priest  horde  must  go,  the  hierarchy  must  dis- 
appear, the  Church  must  be  reorganized,  the 
State  reconstituted,  and  all  the  institutions  of 
society  revised.  It  is  not  only  true,  as  Burke 
said,  "  Society  is  impossible  without  religion," 
but  it  appears  from  the  effects  of  the  Reforma- 
tion that  religion  is  related  to  society  as  the 
root  to  the  branches  of  the  tree. 


214 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


.X""  I.  It  is  thus  one  of  the  first  and  most  notice- 
able gains  of  the  Reformation  that  a  new  type 
of  character  had  appeared  in  Europe.  A  class 
of  men  had  arisen  to  whom  the  words  honor, 
integrity,  uprightness,  truth  and  righteous- 
ness were  not  mere  high-sounding  phrases, 
borrowed  from  an  illustrious  past,  and  used 
as  a  cloak  to  cover  a  multitude  of  sins  against 
all  truth  and  honor,  but  to  whom  they  repre- 
sented living  realities  and  personal  qualities 
essential  to  any  form  of  character  that  would 
stand  the  tests  of  time  and  do  the  real  work 
of  the  world. 

II.  The  political  gains  also  of  the  Reforma- 
tion are  not  the  least  of  its  benefits  to  man- 
kind. The  fundamental  principle  of  Protes- 
tantism is  the  right  of  the  individual  to  use  his 
own  judgment  in  all  matters  that  concern  his 
personal  interests.  That  principle  was  gener- 
ally favorable  to  liberty  when  it  was  adopted. 
Under  its  influence  the  people  began  to  think 
for  themselves.  As  we  have  seen,  the  doc- 
trine of  the  divine  right  of  kings  and  the  vice- 
regal quality  of  priests  came  generally  into 
question,  and  priests  and  kings  equally  feared 
and  hated  the  opposite  idea  of  personal  free- 
dom, because  of  the  seeds  of  political  revolu- 
tion which  it  held.  The  denial  of  sacerdotal 
authority,  and  the  consequent  blow  at  hier- 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION.  215 

archal  pretensions  which  the  Reformation 
involved,  were  only  the  beginning  of  the  gen- 
eral revolution  in  human  society  that  it  was 
to  work.  Like  a  great  oak  tree,  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  right  of  private  judgment  which 
Protestantism  espoused  went  to  work  at 
once  to  feel  among  the  foundations  of  hu- 
man society  for  its  false  and  unwarranted 
supports.  Society  as  then  constituted  began 
to  tremble.  There  was  not  at  that  time  a 
single  good  government  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  a  single  country  ruled  in  equity  or 
judged  in  righteousness,  a  single  spot  of  earth 
in  which  justice,  liberty  or  humane  sentiments 
prevailed,  not  a  single  republic  or  democracy 
or  constitutional  monarchy.  The  first  Prot- 
estant State  was  the  Dutch  Republic.  The 
battle  of  constitutional  liberty  was  fought 
out  in  England  by  the  Protestant  against  the 
Roman  Catholic  royalist,  and  a  constitutional 
monarchy  was  the  result.  In  Germany,  Prus- 
sia took  the  lead  as  a  constitutional  monarchy, 
as  the  result  of  the  Reformation,  and  De 
Tocqueville  says,  "  North  America  was  set- 
tled by  men  who  brought  with  them  a  demo- 
cratic and  republican  religion.  This  con- 
tributed powerfully  to  the  establishment  of  a 
republic  and  democracy  in  public  affairs." 
The  "  town  system  "  and  the  "  town  spirit  " 


2l6 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


which  lie  at  the  root  of  our  national  system 
of  federated  republics  were  the  direct  out- 
growths of  the  church  politics  which  the  early 
settlers  brought  with  them  to  this  country. 
The  northern  portion  of  our  country  was  set- 
tled, not  by  commercial  or  industrial  colonists, 
nor  by  political  or  other  adventurers,  but  by 
churches  as  such — worshipping  congregations 
who  came  hither  to  find  the  liberty  to  wor- 
ship God  according  to  their  own  way  of 
worship.  They  were  each  of  them  independ- 
ent units,  who  chose  their  own  officers  and 
elected  them  out  of  their  own  number,  and  on 
finding  themselves  in  America  without  civil 
government  or  magistrates,  they  elected 
magistrates  from  their  number  and  proceeded 
to  adapt  their  church  polity  to  their  civil 
necessities.  With  a  true  instinct,  the  kings 
had  divined  in  this  religious  polity  a  threat 
of  their  own  existence.  James  I.  had  declared 
"  No  Bishop,  no  King."  The  laity  of  these 
independent  churches  at  Boston,  Salem, 
Plymouth,  Hartford,  Windsor,  New  Haven 
and  other  places,  settled  in  the  same  manner 
or  by  offshoots  from  the  original  congrega- 
tions, became  strongholds  of  democratic  sen- 
timent and  liberty-loving  patriots.  They 
planted  the  tree  of  liberty  wherever  they 
planted  a  church,  and  the  seed  of  that  tree 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION.  217 

soon  flourished  as  in  its  own  native  soil.  Now 
and  again  a  man  appeared,  even  in  the  old 
world,  like  the  Elector  Frederick  of  Saxony, 
the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  Phillip,  William  of 
Orange,  and  Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  had  the 
people's  interests  at  heart,  and  both  sacrificed 
his  means  and  risked  his  life  in  the  cause, 
wholly  from  a  sincere  conviction  of  its  justice 
and  righteousness.  But,  on  the  whole,  the 
rulers  of  the  earth  set  themselves,  and  princes 
took  counsel  together,  against  it,  because  they 
saw  in  it  the  doom  of  their  own  absolutism. 
Even  Henry  of  Navarre  (IV.)  abjured  Prot- 
estantism in  order  to  become  King  of  France, 
and  upheld  Romanism  as  a  foundation  of  the 
throne. 

III.  Religious  liberty  is  another  boon 
which  the  Reformation  secured  to  the  world, 
only  partially,  it  is  true,  at  first,  for  even  the 
Reformers  were  not  always  magnanimous, 
and  the  fair  escutcheon  of  Protestantism  is 
not  unstained  by  some  foul  blots.  But  the 
root  of  the  matter  was  there,  and  it  was  bound 
to  grow  until  it  reached  its  fruition.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  religious  liberty  in  any  form 
exists  only  in  Protestant  countries,  or  in  other 
countries  where  it  has  been  forced  by  Protes- 
tant influences.  No  Roman  Catholic  country 
has,  while  it  was  under  strictly  Roman  Catho- 


218 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


lie  control,  ever  yet  enacted  any  laws  that 
permitted  the  practice  of  any  other  religion  in 
any  form.  And  if  we  find  in  France,  Spain 
and  Italy  to-day  any  approximation  to  re- 
ligious liberty,  it  is  only  because  the  authority 
of  Roman  Catholicism  is  relaxed  and  other 
influences  have  predominated.  On  the  con- 
trary, Protestant  countries  have  been  steadily 
working  towards  complete  religious  freedom 
and  have  approached  most  nearly  to  it  in 
those  countries  where  the  principles  of 
the  Reformation  have  most  completely  tri- 
umphed. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  steadily  and 
stubbornly  repudiates  the  principles  of  the 
right  of  private  judgment  and  the  liberty  of 
conscience  in  everything,  religion  and  politics 
alike.  It  reprobated  these  doctrines  and  de- 
nounced them  as  pestilential  heresies  and 
fatal  errors. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection, 
in  view  of  the  objection  often  urged  against 
Protestantism  as  a  creator  of  anarchy  and  re- 
laxor  of  due  respect  for  law  and  government, 
that  Protestant  countries  that  have  experi- 
enced the  gradual  and  natural  development 
of  free  institutions  are  to-day  the  most  law- 
abiding  and  orderly  portions  of  the  world, 
while  under  Roman  Catholicism  anarchy 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION.  2 19 

breeds,  and  revolutionary  horrors  are  the 
affliction  of  every  Roman  Catholic  country  in 
the  Old  and  the  New  World. 

The  principle  of  religious  liberty  is  a  purely 
Christian  principle. 

When  Constantine  espoused  Christianity, 
and  when  not  only  was  the  persecution  of  the 
Church  brought  to  an  end  but  Christians 
were  exalted  to  positions  of  influence  and 
power,  even  to  the  supreme  command  in  the 
empire  of  the  world,  their  sudden  release 
from  persecution  and  their  unexpected  exal- 
tation from  a  state  of  outlawry  to  the  highest 
position  in  the  government  did  not  corrupt 
them  nor  change  them  from  humble  followers 
of  the  meek  and  lowly  Nazarene  into  fierce 
and  bloodthirsty  persecutors  of  their  enemies. 
On  the  contrary,  they  put  in  force  the  prin- 
ciples they  had  always  maintained,  and 
showed  that  they  had  actually  formed  their 
characters  upon  the  model  of  Christ.  Per- 
suaded by  the  Christian  leaders,  Constantine, 
as  one  of  his  first  acts  after  he  became  a 
Christian,  issued  the  Edict  of  Milas,  which 
granted  entire  and  absolute  religious  free- 
dom to  the  whole  empire  and  prohibited  only 
cruel  and  impure  rites  in  pagan  worship,  and 
the  edict  was  observed  for  almost  a  century, 
until  a  barbarous  emperor  ascended  the 


220 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


throne  and  stirred  up  religious  bitterness  be- 
tween the  different  religions. 

With  that  single  exception,  there  had  never 
been  any  religious  liberty  among  men. 
Every  man  was  expected  to  conform  to  the 
religion  of  his  country,  whatever  that  might 
be,  and  not  to  suggest  any  change  in  it,  much 
less  any  departure  from  it.  The  early  Chris- 
tians incurred  persecution  because  they  were 
considered  to  be  either  a  new  sect  of  the  Jews 
or  a  new  religion,  and  in  either  case  they 
were  amenable  to  the  law.  But  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages  con- 
ceived the  ambitious  design  of  subduing  all 
peoples  unto  itself  and  of  supplanting  all  re- 
ligions by  its  own.  It  could  tolerate  no  dif- 
ferences. It  created  the  doctrine  of  salva- 
tion by  the  Church  and  it  taught  that  salva- 
tion out  of  the  Church  was  impossible.  The 
Reformation  was  a  return  to  primitive  Chris- 
tian principles  in  religion.  It  aimed  to  create 
a  condition  of  things  in  which  it  would  be 
possible  for  every  man  to  worship  God  under 
his  own  vine  and  fig  tree,  with  none  to  molest 
or  make  him  afraid. 

IV.  Not  the  least  of  the  benefits  of  Protes- 
tantism has  been  its  effect  upon  the  intellec- 
tual life  of  its  adherents.  It  acted  at  once  as 
an  intellectual  tonic  and  invigorator.  It 


GAINS   FROM    THE    REFORMATION.  221 

aroused  the  investigating  spirit  and  gave  rise 
to  the  critical  method  of  study  as  opposed  to 
the  submission  to  authority  which  preceded  it. 
The  Renaissance  acted  as  an  intellectual  stim- 
ulus and  quickening  in  Southern  Europe  upon 
the  minds  of  a  few,  but  it  neither  nourished  a 
sustained  and  vigorous  intellectual  life  nor  ac- 
complished release  from  long-established  au- 
thority, and  in  those  countries  where  Protes- 
tantism was  rejected  it  did  not  long  continue, 
but  proved  to  be  a  fitful,  waning  light,  which 
went  out  within  the  century.  In  both  France 
and  Spain  it  degenerated  into  literary  drivel 
and  deformity.  In  France,  intellectual  life 
took  the  form  of  lawlessness  and  extrava- 
gance, and  in  Spain  that  of  servility,  and  obse- 
quious effrontery  marks  the  literary  product 
of  the  subsequent  times.  The  influence  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  upon  the  human 
mind  for  four  hundred  years  and  more  has 
been  to  stultify  it.  Since  the  Reformation  she 
has  produced  few  great  scholars,  and  the 
cramped  and  crippled  condition  of  the  minds 
of  her  recent  writers  is  the  surest  possible 
arraignment  of  her  system  of  education. 

Protestantism  throws  open  wide  the  doors 
of  knowledge,  of  investigation,  of  thought 
and  of  inquiry.  It  bids  man  search  and  find. 
The  whole  wide  world  is  before  him,  with  all 


232 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 


its  secrets,  and  the  intellect  with  which  God 
endowed  him  is  his  for  the  purposes  of  finding 
it  out.  Protestantism  imposes  upon  him  the 
obligation  of  developing  every  faculty  of  his 
mind,  and  seeks  to  impress  him  with  the  cul- 
pability of  neglecting  opportunity  to  increase 
his  power  to  think.  He  is  in  this  world  as  a 
learner,  and  it  is  his  duty  to  know  as  far  as  he 
can.  He  is  to  try  and  prove  all  things.  No  ex 
catliedra  utterance  and  no  arbiter  dictum  are 
to  be  regarded  as  final.  He  is  to  investigate, 
inquire  and  find  out  all  he  can  in  every  sphere, 
and  not  to  rest  satisfied  with  any  stage  of 
knowledge  in  which  he  may  happen  to  be  at 
any  time. 

The  effect  of  that  sort  of  teaching  was  im- 
mensely quickening  to  the  human  mind.  It 
necessitated  at  the  outset  provisions  for  the 
education  of  all  the  people,  and  that  Luther 
saw;  and  Puritans  and  Pilgrims  in  England 
and  America,  as  well  as  the  Dutch  people,  set 
themselves  at  work  to  devise  a  general  sys- 
tem of  popular  education.  The  intellectual  su- 
premacy of  Protestant  countries  to-day  is  due 
to  that  fact.  Holland  first  came  into  promi- 
nence for  the  intelligence  and  culture  of  her 
people  as  she  emerged  from  the  baptism  in 
blood  at  the  hands  of  Roman  Catholic  Spain. 
England  reached  the  golden  age  of  literature 


GAINS   FROM   THE   REFORMATION.  223 

when  the  Protestant  ferment  was  at  its  height, 
and  such  men  as  Bacon  and  Shakespeare, 
Raleigh  and  Milton,  were  its  ripened  products. 
Scotland  has  been  remarkable  for  the  num- 
ber and  magnitude  of  the  really  great  names 
she  has  contributed  to  letters,  to  the  fine  arts, 
to  science,  to  philosophy,  to  statesmanship, 
to  poetry  and  religion.  The  immense  erudi- 
tion of  her  scholars  and  the  general  intelli- 
gence of  her  people  for  the  last  three  hundred 
years  and  at  the  present  day  are  surprising, 
when  we  consider  the  generally  impoverished 
condition  of  the  country  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  Reformation;  and  it  can  be  attributed  to 
no  other  cause  than  the  heartiness  and  una- 
nimity with  which  she  adopted  the  principles 
of  the  Reformation  and  the  strenuousness 
with  which  she  has  lived  up  to  those  princi- 
ples. Her  covenant  with  Protestantism  was 
the  covenant  of  blood,  signed  and  sealed  with 
the  best  blood  of  the  nation.  Germany  has 
earned  the  title  of  the  land  of  scholars.  Since 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
achievements  of  the  German  mind  in  all 
branches  of  scholarship  have  surpassed  those 
of  all  other  nations  of  ancient  or  modern 
times,  and  she  still  holds  the  palm  for  scholar- 
ship. Melancthon,  the  great  scholar  of  the 
Reformation,  gave  particular  attention  to  ed- 


224          STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

ucation,  and  he  is  still  honored,  and  justly  so, 
with  the  title,  "  Preceptor  of  the  Nation." 
And  Luther  gave  to  Germany  her  first  general 
system  of  education,  and  the  principles  upon 
which  it  has  grown  and  expanded  were  first 
established  by  the  great  leader  of  the  Refor- 
mation. 

Time  fails  me  to  speak  of  the  effect  upon 
philosophy,  how  the  Reformation  revolution- 
ized the  principles  of  human  knowledge,  and 
in  Bacon  first  established  the  true  principle 
of  investigation  upon  which  modern  science 
rests,  and  upon  which  our  advancing  knowl- 
edge in  history  and  religion  is  developed  and 
is  alone  possible.  It  has  taught  us  to  think 
on  a  basis  of  facts,  not  of  fancies  or  theories, 
to  base  all  our  theories  upon  facts,  not  to 
conform  our  facts  to  theories.  It  has  pro- 
duced a  new  system  of  philosophy,  beginning 
with  Descartes  and  culminating  in  Kant  and 
Hegel.  Out  of  it  arose  the  new  sciences  of 
commerce,  of  government,  of  industrial  and 
social  life.  Political  economy  and  sociology 
also  are  born  of  the  very  genius  of  Protes- 
tantism. It  also  rescued  the  Copernican  sys- 
tem of  astronomy  from  the  blighting  con- 
demnation of  the  Inquisition  before  there  had 
been  time  utterly  to  crush  out  its  life,  and 
while  Galileo  was  yet  a  prisoner  at  Rome, 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION. 


225 


because  of  his  adherence  to  that  system,  it 
found  adherents  and  advocates  in  all  Prot- 
estant countries.  All  natural  sciences  were 
encouraged  by  Protestant  liberty  of  thought 
and  investigation,  and  the  study  of  interna- 
tional law  arose  as  a  new  creation. 

But  it  is  in  the  realm  of  religion  that  we 
perceive  the  chief  benefits  of  the  Reformation. 
When  Protestantism  appeared,  a  state  of  gen- 
eral irreligion  prevailed  throughout  Europe 
among  all  the  thinking,  educated  classes,  and 
of  gross  superstition  among  the  lower 
classes.  Atheism  itself  sat  upon  the  papal 
throne  in  the  person  of  at  least  one  pope.  The 
chief  effect  of  the  Renaissance  had  been  to 
weaken  the  hold  of  the  Church  upon  the  edu- 
cated and  thinking  classes;  but  it  had  left 
them  without  anything  better  in  its  place. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  always 
recognized  the  danger  to  herself  of  general 
education  and,  therefore,  has  discouraged  it; 
has  never  permitted  it  to  prevail  where  she 
could  prevent  it,  and  has  established  a  modi- 
fied form  of  education  in  her  own  parochial 
schools  under  the  supervision  of  the  Church. 
Wherever  general  education  is  established 
and  compulsory,  either  she  will  not  have  her 
children  go  to  school  at  all,  or  she  will  see  to 
it  that  they  receive  no  instruction  but  that 


226 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


which  she  authorizes  and  approves.  And  the 
result  is  a  reaction  against  the  Church  on  the 
part  of  the  independent  and  thinking  portions 
of  her  own  children  as  soon  as  they  begin  to 
acquire  knowledge  for  themselves  or  come  in 
contact  with  those  who  have  it. 

The  Reformation  met  the  rising  tide  of 
skepticism  which  was  beginning  to  sweep 
over  Europe,  and  wherever  successful,  stayed 
the  course  of  that  skepticism  for  a  hundred 
years.  It  was  preeminently  the  era  of  faith  in 
all  Protestant  countries,  and  the  period  of 
rationalism  which  followed  it  was  mild  and 
harmless  compared  with  the  rank  infidelity 
which  prevailed  in  Southern  Europe  at  the 
same  time  and  gave  rise  to  such  men  as  Vol- 
taire and  Rousseau,  while  it  was  France, 
Catholic  France,  that  was  and  still  is  the  home 
of  atheism. 

Protestantism's  first  service  in  religion  was 
in  providing  man  with  the  greatest  textbook 
of  the  spiritual  life  in  existence.  It  called  from 
its  seclusion  the  Bible,  and  gave  it  its  right- 
ful place  in  religious  instruction.  It  estab- 
lished the  Bible  as  the  perfect  rule  of  religious 
faith  and  practice,  and  made  it  the  touch- 
stone of  conduct.  The  translation  and  dis- 
tribution of  the  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular 
among  the  peoples  of  Protestant  countries 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION.  227 

were  attended  by  immediate  and  marked  re- 
sults, in  the  sincerity,  simplicity,  depth  and 
power  of  the  religious  life.  Intelligent  inquiry 
and  diligent  study  of  religious  truths  were  ac- 
companied by  deep  religious  feeling  and  sim- 
ple, childlike  faith  and  profound  reverence. 
The  kind  of  devotion  which  consisted  in  grov- 
elling prostration  and  obeisance  before  images 
vanished  before  the  sincere  homage  which  the 
heart  rendered  to  God  alone.  The  worship  of 
shrines  and  images  and  saints  and  angels,  the 
superstitious  regard  for  amulets  and  relics  and 
magic  signs  and  symbols,  incantations  and 
genuflexions,  disappeared,  and  a  simple  and 
pure  spiritual  worship  of  God  took  its  place. 
The  Protestant  doctrine  of  worship  is,  "  God 
is  a  spirit  and  desireth  such  to  worship  Him 
as  shall  worship  Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth." 
The  Protestant  position  in  worship  is  that  no 
priest  or  ceremony  can  come  between  the 
soul  and  God ;  that  the  worshipper  enters  into 
the  immediate  presence  of  God  by  the  new 
and  living  way  opened  up  by  Christ,  and  that 
no  intermediary  agents  or  instruments  are 
permissible  or  possible ;  that  every  man  is  re- 
sponsible to  God  for  his  conduct;  that  he 
stands  or  falls  to  God  alone,  and  that  unto 
God  alone  must  he  give  an  account,  and  from 
God  alone  can  he  receive  absolution  of  sin. 


228 


STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 


Under  such  a  religious  system,  spiritual 
tyranny  and  moral  slavery  is  forever  utterly 
impossible.  The  man  who  accepts  it  and  lives 
in  it  has  attained  the  glorious  liberty  of  the 
children  of  God.  Let  us,  therefore,  to  whom 
it  is  given  as  a  precious  heritage,  stand  fast 
in  this  liberty  in  which  Christ  hath  made  us 
free — a  liberty  in  which  we  are  all  brethren, 
in  which  none  can  lord  it  over  God's  heritage, 
and  in  which  he  who  would  be  first  among  us 
must  be  our  servant. 

The  result  of  this  change  in  religion  ap- 
peared also  in  a  new  form  of  character.  Per- 
haps nothing  is  more  marked  in  all  the  last 
four  hundred  years  than  the  growth  and 
prevalence  of  a  new  manhood.  Character  has 
assumed  a  new  station,  a  new  dignity,  a  new 
solidity  and  a  new  worth.  The  coupling  of 
the  Christian  graces  with  the  heroic  virtues 
is  practically  a  new  achievement.  The  wed- 
ding of  generosity  with  justice;  of  kindness 
with  firmness;  of  entire  truthfulness  with  un- 
failing grace;  of  the  utmost  integrity  with 
the  most  unfaltering  affection  as  it  exists  to- 
day in  what  is  known  as  Christian  character, 
is  one  of  the  immediate  outcomes  of  the  Ref- 
ormation. The  qualities  of  endurance,  stoi- 
cism and  firmness  which  characterized  the 
Spartan  are  wedded  to  the  graceful  qualities 


GAINS   FROM   THE   REFORMATION.  229 

of  keen  sensibility,  quick  insight,  and  aes- 
thetic delicacy  characteristic  of  the  Athenian. 
The  Spartan  heroism  and  the  Athenian  deli- 
cacy and  grace  are  met.  The  Hebrew  con- 
science and  the  Greek  exquisiteness  of  sensi- 
bility are  united  here ;  or,  to  be  more  general, 
the  delicate  grace  and  beauty  that  we  are  ac- 
customed to  associate  with  woman  and  the 
strength  and  fortitude  we  call  masculine  are 
become  one.  A  true  Christian  character,  as 
it  appears  to  us,  is  a  full-rounded,  symmetri- 
cal character,  having  fortitude,  endurance,  in- 
tegrity, sensibilities  and  grace.  That  is  our 
idea  of  saintliness,  "  which  without  hardness 
can  be  sage,  and  gay  without  frivolity." 
"  Suaviter  in  modo,  fortifier  in  re." 

And  Protestantism  has  produced  multi- 
tudes of  such  characters.  Among  the  Quak- 
ers and  the  Methodists  they  are  of  frequent 
occurrence,  perhaps  of  greater  frequency  than 
among  any  other  bodies,  but  they  are  found 
among  all  Christians.  The  gentle,  tender, 
sweet,  pure,  strong,  enlightened,  energetic, 
firm  and  dauntless  champions  of  truth  and 
right  are  illustrators  of  the  mind  that  was  in 
Christ,  with  none  of  the  restrictions  which 
characterized  a  man  like  a  Kempis,  or  Fran- 
cis of  Assisi,  or  Brother  Lawrence,  or  Tauler. 
They  are  full-rounded  and  symmetrical,  giv- 


230  STRUGGLE   FOR   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY. 

ing  the  impression  of  a  fullness  of  stature  of 
manhood  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  genius  of  Prot- 
estantism is  not  the  mere  effort  to  escape 
hell  and  get  into  heaven  by  some  means  at 
last,  but  it  is  to  make  men  better  in  this  pres- 
ent world,  and  to  help  men  make  this  world 
better;  it  is  to  teach  men  how  to  make  a 
heaven  on  earth;  it  is  to  be  clean  and  straight 
and  true;  to  be  men  and  not  animals;  to  come 
out  of  the  sty  and  quit  meanness;  and  the 
success  Protestantism  has  had  in  this  alone, 
as  seen  by  the  comparison  between  a  Catholic 
and  Protestant  community  to-day,  is  enough 
to  justify  all  the  Reformation  has  cost. 

In  a  word,  the  immense  amelioration  of 
society  in  modern  times  is  a  Protestant  pro- 
duction, through  its  influence  upon  the  in- 
tellectual, civil  and  religious  life  of  man,  and 
so  upon  human  character.  No  Roman  Cath- 
olic state  has  by  itself  ever  yet  developed  a 
just  or  humane  government,  an  enlightened 
or  progressive  community,  an  elevated  or 
aspiring  type  of  public  character.  Exalted 
and  pure  souls  there  have  been  among  Ro- 
manists, not  a  few,  but  even  they  often  seem 
to  lack  the  intellectual  balance  and  symmetry 
essential  to  the  ideal  character. 

And  this  result  has  been  accomplished  by 
exalting  and  emphasizing  Christ  as  the  ob- 


GAINS   FROM    THE   REFORMATION. 


231 


ject  of  worship  and  emulation.  Next  to  the 
restoration  of  the  Bible  to  its  rightful  place 
in  the  thought  and  study  of  men  is  the  res- 
toration of  Christ  to  his  rightful  place  of 
authority  in  the  heart  and  over  the  mind  of 
man.  The  ultimate  authority  in  Protestant- 
ism as  it  stands  to-day  is  not  an  institution 
called  the  Church,  nor  a  book  called  the  Bible, 
but  a  person  called  the  Christ.  Christ  is  su- 
preme in  the  Protestant's  heart,  high  over  all, 
God-blessed  forevermore.  The  re-enthrone- 
ment of  Christ  in  the  hearts  and  over  the 
lives  of  men  in  these  last  days  is  the  chief 
service  of  Protestantism  to  the  world. 

"  I  live  for  those  who  need  me, 
For  those  who  need  the  truth, 
For  the  heaven  that  smiles  above  me 
And  waits  my  coming  too; 
For  the  wrong  that  needs  resistance, 
For  the  right  that  needs  assistance, 
For  the  future  in  the  distance, 
And  the  good  that  I  can  do." 


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